Martha Raye

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American entertainer, a zestful, boisterous comedienne with a huge, elastic mouth and zany antics. She was born in a charity ward, the daughter of touring vaudeville parents. She joined the family vaudeville act by the time she was three. By 13 she was a specialty singer with a band. Raye was a vet of stage and night clubs by 19 when she made her first film, 1935, after which she played in many minor roles. Her films include "Monsieur Verdoux," 1947 and "Airport," 1979, but her greatest acclaim always came from live entertainment, stage, Broadway, clubs and wartime tours with variety shows. Raye married seven times, the last time on 23 September 1991 to 30-year-younger Mark Steven Harris (born 1 February 1949), 42 to her 75, after a three-week courtship in Las Vegas. She was in a wheelchair after a stroke, drinking a lot, lonely since being widowed two years before and estranged from her only child, Melodye, 47. She said that she was in love with him as he made her feel young and a woman, with sex for the first time in years. Her circulation problems worsened and her left leg was amputated below the knee in 1993. In her last few years she had eight strokes and both legs amputated, Parkinson's and cataracts. Her daughter said she had dementia in contesting Raye's will in which she left $1 million to her daughter and the rest to Harris. She died on 19 October 1994, Los Angeles, CA of aspiration pneumonia, at 1:45pm She was 78. Link to Wikipedia biography