Yes, Yes, Nanette!

Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares

was born in 1920, in San Diego.

Tap dance lessons, some with Bojangles Robinson,

 (of course) and a professional debut at age 3 (of course)

as "Miss New Year's Eve"...

that's how things rolled for Ruby!

She made her film debut at age 19 in

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Bette Davis.

She toured in the show, Meet The People (1940-41),

singing "Caro Nome" from Rigoletto WHILE tap dancing.

The story goes that she was introduced at one point in that tour

by Ed Sullivan who mispronounced her name (of course)

as "Nanette Fa-bare-ass."

She changed the spelling to Fabray probably about 7 seconds later.

In 1950, it was Arms And The Girl,

a Morton Gould/Dorothy Fields musical

with Nanette and Pearl Bailey.

 Below, the Playbill from Love Life, 1949,

which had the music of Kurt Weill, lyrics Alan Jay Lerner,

starring Nanette and Ray Middleton 

(who later played Frank Butler in the original Annie, Get Your Gun).

Nanette pocketed a Tony for that show.

 Other Fabray shows of that era were

High Button Shoes, Bloomer Girl, By Jupiter, and Make A Wish.

Television called, and Nanette answered!

She won 3 (count 'em, 3) Emmys for her work on Caesar's Hour,

1954-56,

above with Sid,

and below with a bevy of talent from that show:

Howard Morris, Sid, Nanette, and Carl Reiner.

The Bandwagon came along in 1953

and Nanette jumped on:

Music, Arthur Schwartz, Lyrics, Howard Dietz and

starring Nanette, Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan,

Cyd Charisse and Oscar Levant.

She played "Betty Comden" to Oscar's "Adolph Green".

Below, the infamous "Triplets." 

 Tons of television appearances (1960 - 90),

above with Lucille Ball ("Here's Lucy!")

and below as Katherine Romano, Ann Romano's mom

(Ann played by Bonnie Franklin).

Nanette played a lot of MOMS

(The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Coach),

as well as 3 different dames on Love Boat,

a suspect on Murder She Wrote,

and even had her own sitcom back in 1961,

called "Yes, Yes, Nanette!"

Nanette suffered from a hearing impairment all her life, 

 and was an advocate for the deaf and hard-of-hearing for many years.

 She wasn't diagnosed til her 20s...

when her acting teacher encouraged her to get tested.

"I always thought I was stupid,

but in reality I just had a hearing problem."

RIP....1920 - 2018