Betty Winsett, Broadway actress & singer, 74

[deb...@comcast.net]

Actress, singer Winsett dies at 74

By Bob Schwarz
Staff writer, Charleston Gazette

Betty Winsett, a Broadway actress and club singer who left Charleston
after high school, died May 2 at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in
Englewood, N.J. She was 74.

Winsett, who died of Alzheimer's disease, graduated from a Texas
college before moving to New York to study acting with Sanford Meisner
at the Neighborhood Playhouse near Manhattan's theater district.

Over a lengthy performing career that ended when she took a fall 3 1/2
years ago - making her Alzheimer's symptoms more apparent -
Winsett performed in dramas, comedies and musicals on both Broadway and
in London, said actress and friend Jennifer Marshall, who met her late
in life and roomed with her much of the last seven years.

When Winsett was in her mid-20s, her music teacher told her to go
audition at New York City Opera for the experience, Marshall related.
"She came back and said, 'I got it.'" The city's No. 2 opera
company had hired her for small roles.

In London, Winsett understudied and went on for Mary Martin in "Hello
Dolly" and for Ginger Rogers in "Mame," Marshall said.

Winsett was divorced from Jack Sprague, a British saxophonist who
arranged songs for her and led her backup band. She performed many
years with tenor Jim Eiler as part of the duo Winsett & Eiler, who
performed at The Roxie in Manhattan and on Cunard Line cruises,
Marshall said. "They would create a new show every week. The captain
would say, 'How about a Japanese theme?'"

Until her fall, Winsett continued to perform and give private singing
and acting lessons. In 2000, a New York Times reviewer came to see "I
Hear," an off-Broadway production in which three Argentine
grandmothers protest the disappearance of their sons and grandsons.
"[They] project a presence and authority of experience that makes one
feel much more than words can suggest," the reviewer wrote.

Winsett took great delight in ordinary things, a tuna fish sandwich,
for instance, Marshall said. "We laughed out loud every day
throughout the day. We would watch the sunset and after a particularly
glorious one, we would applaud it and say, 'Bravo.'"

She was the daughter of Viola Amick and the stepdaughter of Harold
Amick.

An only child who had no children of her own, Winsett left no close
kin. Friends will hold a memorial service at a later date.