TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

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OBITUARIES

JUNE HAVOC, 97

The real ‘Baby June’ of blockbuster ‘Gypsy’ loved the ‘special world’ of show business

by Adam Bernstein

Like her sister, the celebrated strip tease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee, June Havoc began perform- ing as toddler on the vaudeville circuit. Ms. Havoc went on to a five-decade career on Broadway, notably as a burlesque dancer in the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical “Pal Joey” (1940) and the vivacious star of Cole Porter’s 1944 musical “Mexican Hayride.” Decades later, she was cast as the cruel orphanage matron Miss Hannigan in the musical “Annie.” If Ms. Havoc, who died March 28 in Fairfield County, Conn., likely at the age of 97, did not reach the same degree of recogni- tion as her less modest sister, she nonetheless achieved an endur- ing place in popular culture be- cause of the character she in- spired in the 1959 Stephen Sond- heim-Jule Styne-Arthur Laurents musical “Gypsy.” The show, based on her sister’s memoir about their tyrannical mother, was a Broadway hit and became a the- atrical staple.

Over the years, Ms. Havoc took strong exception to “Gypsy” and wrote three well-received mem- oirs to make her point. She re- sented how “Gypsy” made her mother seem abrasive but ulti- mately good-hearted when, as Ms. Havoc said, her mother was a “man trap,” physically threaten- ing and probably emotionally disturbed. Moreover, Ms. Havoc was aghast at how the show ap- peared to demote her to a second- ary character when she was in fact the high-kicking star of the act. Thrown into show business from age 2, she was billed as “Baby June, the Pocket-sized Pa- vlova” and earned a small fortune as a child dancing three or four shows a day in seedy theaters across the country. She broke from her mother’s grip at 13 and endured years of punishing work on the dance marathon circuit before emerging as an alluring blond stage and screen star in the 1940s. In addition to her work in “Pal

Joey” and “Mexican Hayride,” Ms. Havoc won critical raves as the “fallen woman” in “Sadie Thomp- son” (1944), Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz’s musical adapta- tion of a W. Somerset Maugham story. To moviegoers, Ms. Havoc is best recalled as the secretary ashamed of being Jewish in “Gen- tleman’s Agreement” (1947), star- ring Gregory Peck as a journalist investigating anti-Semitism. Ms. Havoc later wrote plays and was a Tony Award-nominat- ed director. In profiles over the years, she was described with a degree of awe: as a resolute and effervescent survivor through nearly nine decades in entertain- ment. She was inevitably asked her opinion of “Gypsy,” which was billed as a “musical fable.” She said she had grown “tired of fa- bles.”

“Baby June” was born Ellen

Evangeline Hovick in the Pacific Northwest, probably on Nov. 8, 1912. Even she was uncertain of the details, as her mother carried five different birth certificates to circumvent a patchwork of child labor laws. Some reference works put the year of her birth as late as 1916 and say she was born either in Seattle or Vancouver, British Columbia. It is unclear if she was older or younger than her sister, who was born Rose Louise Hov- ick and whose year of birth has been reported between from 1911 to 1914. Their mother, the former Rose

CHET SIMMONS, 81

Sports broadcaster, ESPN president helped develop instant replay at NBC

Associated Press

Chet Simmons, 81, a pioneer- ing sports broadcaster who served as president of ESPN dur- ing the company’s launch in 1979, died March 25 in Atlanta. His family did not disclose the cause of death. Mr. Simmons began in broad- casting in 1957 with a forerunner of ABC Sports and helped devel- op “Wide World of Sports” before becoming president of NBC Sports and later ESPN. He was also founding commissioner of the U.S. Football League. “Chet Simmons’s leadership and vision in our first years were absolutely critical to ESPN’s sur- vival,” said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC

Sports. “He was the only industry president to have pioneered both sports broadcasting in the late ’50s and cable television in the late ’70s,” he added. Mr. Simmons helped launch the careers of many sports com- mentators, including Merlin Ol- sen, Greg and Bryant Gumbel, Dick Enberg, Joe Garagiola, Tony Kubek and Dick Vitale. “Chet did so much more than

take a chance on us young people 30 years ago,” ESPN anchor Chris Berman said. “What you see to- day would have never been pos- sible without him.” Before going to ESPN, Mr. Sim- mons spent 15 years at NBC, where he was involved in devel- oping instant replay and had a hand in acquiring the network’s

rights to broadcast the American Football League, National Foot- ball League, Major League Base- ball, National Hockey League, college basketball and the Wim- bledon tennis championship. Mr. Simmons joined ESPN as president and chief operating of- ficer weeks before the network’s launch Sept. 7, 1979.

Among his most notable

achievements at ESPN were the birth and direction of “Sports- Center,” plus comprehensive cov- erage of the early rounds of the men’s NCAA basketball tourna- ment and the NFL player draft. Mr. Simmons left ESPN in 1982 and joined the USFL, serving as the league’s commissioner until January 1985. He went on to serve as a media consultant and college professor.

Chet Simmons helped develop “Wide World of Sports” and was president of NBC Sports.

Chester Robert Simmons was

born July 11, 1928, in New York and was a graduate of the Univer- sity of Alabama. He had been liv- ing in Atlanta, and Savannah, Ga., since 1986. Survivors include his wife,

Harriet Simmons; four children; and nine grandchildren.

S

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Daniel J. Fissell

MUSIC TEACHER

Daniel J. Fissell, 35, a music teacher in the Fairfax County public schools, died March 10 at Washington Hospital Center. He had suffered burns and smoke in- halation in a fire at his Falls Church area home the previous week. Mr. Fissell joined the Fairfax schools in 2000, teaching first at Holmes Middle School. In 2003, he started teaching in the el- ementary grades. At the time of his death, he taught orchestra at Vienna, Marshall Road, Cunning- ham Park and Stenwood elemen- tary schools. Daniel Jason Fissell was born

in Alexandria. He graduated from McLean High School in 1992. He received a bachelor’s degree in music education from West Vir- ginia University in 1997 and a master’s degree in music from George Mason University in 2009. In the summer of 2005, Mr. Fis- sell took a group of Fairfax music students to the Philippines, where they performed at the U.S. Embassy in Manila and at several universities. Survivors include his partner

of seven years, Al Fuertes of Fair- fax City; his father, Gary Fissell of Sterling; his mother and stepfa- ther, Mary Cina and David Cina of Falls Church; and a sister, Kris- tine Simpkins of Christiansburg, Va.

—Emily Langer

Mariella Frye

CATHOLIC NUN

Sister Mariella Frye, 88, a nun who spent 21 years with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bish- ops in Wash- ington, died March 26 of a stroke at the Villa, a Catho- lic assisted liv- ing communi- ty in Balti- more County. Sister Ma-

Mariella Frye

COURTESY OF JUNE HAVOC

June Havoc started performing at 2 and earned a small fortune dancing in theaters across the country.

years later with Bobby Reed, a vaudeville performer. The union did not last. To earn enough mon- ey to eat, she worked the grueling and sordid Depression-era mara- thon dance circuit, which she de- picted in her critically acclaimed play “Marathon ’33.” Ms. Havoc earned a 1964 Tony

FILE PHOTO

Ms. Havoc, in a 1950 photo, performed on Broadway in “Pal Joey” and later wrote plays.

Thompson, thrust them onstage as “Mama Rose’s Dancing Daugh- ters” after separating from their father, John, a newspaper ad salesman. Ms. Havoc brooked no dissent about who was responsi- ble for the act’s success.

“I earned $1,500 dollars a week when I was 6 and I knew exactly how I got the laughs and the ap- plause,” she said. “There were nine numbers in our act. I did seven of them.” She lived an exhausting child- hood, being dragged from town to town and forced onstage even with chicken pox. Although she had some private tutoring, she re- lied largely on Gideon Bibles sto- len from cheap hotels as her chief English textbook. Her mother ground through

whatever money her daughters earned. Pushed to her limit, Ms. Havoc said she suffered a nervous breakdown at 10 and eloped a few

Award nomination for directing Julie Harris in “Marathon ’33” on Broadway. Writing in the New York Times, theater critic Harold Taubman called the show a “tour de force of theatricality.” He wrote that “you see the poor dev- ils dance and brawl and cheat and break down, and you get a sense of the promoters who fed on them and of the public that cheered them on, like the gladi- ators being served to the lions.” Slowly Ms. Havoc began land- ing more prominent acting jobs that culminated in her break- through performance as stripper Gladys Bumps in “Pal Joey.” The show was best known for making a star of dancer Gene Kelly, who played the caddish title role and soon became a Hollywood star. But Ms. Havoc, who performed the broadly comic song “That Ter- rific Rainbow,” also was sum- moned to the film colony. If Kelly soared onscreen, Ms.

Havoc flew at a much lower alti- tude. She starred in mediocre wartime musicals and other light fare such as “My Sister Eileen” (1942) before making the leap to more dramatic roles in the late 1940s, notably as the self-loath- ing Elaine Wales in “Gentleman’s Agreement.” As her film work dropped off,

Ms. Havoc became a television actress. She played Eugene

O’Neill’s waterfront tramp in “An- na Christie” opposite Richard Burton in a 1952 TV production. She maintained a theater career well into the 1990s, at one point touring as Mrs. Lovett in the Sondheim musical “Sweeney Todd.” Ms. Havoc’s second marriage, to Donald S. Gibbs, ended in di- vorce. Her third husband, radio producer and television director William Spier, died in 1973 after 25 years of marriage. Her only child, April Kent, died in 1998. She had no immediate survivors. By the 1970s, Ms. Havoc had

settled in Connecticut and lived with a manageable menagerie of sheep, fowl, horses and a burro named Bottom. She renovated several pre-Civil War buildings near her home in posh Fairfield County. Mostly, she attracted at- tention as a fascinating throw- back to a half-forgotten era. She spoke of the compelling emo- tional grip of even her most anx- ious years. “Hunger makes anything pos-

sible,” she told the Times. “To me the marathon was a fair game. I was getting 12 meals every 24 hours, as long as I stayed on my feet. And I’m not sad about my childhood in vaudeville. Why should I be? “Think how wonderful it was to be a little kid on stage with all that love from the audience. It was a special world. I remember the signs at the theater: ‘No hells, no damns, no mention of the dei- ty, and always wear silk stocking all the way up. Keep your act clean, but loud.’ That was religion for me.”

bernsteina@washpost.com

riella helped oversee the National catechetical directory, which set religious education guidelines in the United States. She also staffed a committee that reviewed the status of women in the church. In 1994, she became the secretary for Maryland Bishop P. Francis Murphy. In 1978, she became the first female adviser to the U.S. delega- tion to the International Synod of Bishops. That year, the synod ad- vised the pope on catechisms. Mary Catherine Frye was born

in Washington and attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart. She received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola College in Baltimore, a master’s in religious education from Manhattanville College in New York and a PhD in education from the University of Pittsburgh. Sister Mariella joined Balti-

more’s Mission Helpers of the Sa- cred Heart in 1949. For several years, she taught at schools in North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

She received the Holy Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award for distinguished service from Pope John Paul II.

vors.

She had no immediate survi-

—Timothy R. Smith

Gerald Kasperbauer

AIR FORCE COLONEL

Gerald Kasperbauer, 69, a re- tired Air Force colonel and com- bat pilot who settled in the Washington area after re- tiring from the military in 1986, died March 23 of brain cancer at his home in Gainesville. During the

G. Kasperbauer

Vietnam War, Col. Kasperbauer flew more than 100 combat mis- sions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, including a mis- sion to Hanoi in 1973 to pick up 28 U.S. prisoners of war. During the late 1970s and early ’80s, he trained flying instructors and served in attaché assignments at U.S. embassies in Ottawa and Co- penhagen. His military decorations in- clude the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, two Air Medals and the Air Force Commendation Medal. After retiring from active duty, he was a mattress and cabinet salesman for Washington area companies. Gerald Henry Kasperbauer was

a native of Manning, Iowa, and a graduate of the University of Ne- braska. He received a master’s de- gree in personnel management from what is now Webster Uni- versity near St. Louis. He began his military career in 1958. He was a Eucharistic minister

of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville.

His marriage to the former Jan-

et Nugent ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 21 years, the former Norma Garcia- Fonseca, of Gainesville; two chil- dren from his first marriage, Charles Nugent of Stafford and Kelly Kasperbauer of Virginia Beach; four stepchildren, Nancy Christensen of Southern Pines, N.C., Evelyn Morris of Grayslake, Ill., Dennis Cox of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Venice Cox of Manassas; three sisters; five brothers; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

—Emma Brown

Glee D. Gomien

CAPITOL HILL AIDE

Glee D. Gomien, 93, an exec- utive secretary to then-Senate Mi- nority Leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-Ill.), died March 4 at Manor Care nursing home in Potomac. She had sepsis and Alzheimer’s disease. Mrs. Gomien joined the staff of then-Rep. Dirksen in 1945 and followed him to the Senate in the early 1950s. She was Dirksen’s ex- ecutive secretary through his years as minority leader from 1959 until his death in 1969. She later became executive di-

rector of the National Republican Senatorial Committee before serving as a government relations consultant in the late 1970s and 1980s. Glee DeVore was born in Col- fax, Ill., and settled in the Wash- ington area about 1940 to work for the War Production Board. She was a longtime Bethesda resident before moving into a nursing home in 2003. She was a member of Concord-St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Bethesda. She was a past board member of the Capitol Hill Club and a past member of Kenwood Golf and Country Club in Beth- esda. Her husband of 57 years, John

R. Gomien, died in 1997. Survivors include three daugh- ters, Dee Ann Gretz of Vienna, Danice Moore of New York and Donna Gomien of Santa Fe, N.M.; and a granddaughter.

—Adam Bernstein

Janet B. Holloman

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Janet B. Holloman, 61, who spent 20 years as a kindergarten teaching assistant at Prince Wil- liam County public schools, died March 25 of ovarian cancer at her home in Manassas. Mrs. Holloman retired from teaching in 1998. Janet de Neale Beverley was born in Alexandria, where her fa- ther later became mayor. She graduated from Francis C. Ham- mond High School in Alexandria in 1966 and attended Greensboro College in North Carolina and the old International Institute of In- terior Design in Washington. She did arts and crafts, includ-

ing pottery and watercolors, and sold her creations at crafts shows. During the Christmas season, she gave friends and family hand- made ornaments. Survivors include her husband

of 41 years, Hugh J. Holloman of Manassas; two children, Jennifer Hash of Fredericksburg and James J. Holloman of McLean; two brothers; a sister; and three grandchildren.

—Timothy R. Smith

Lawrence K. Larkin

MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Lawrence K. Larkin, 87, a mar-

keting executive for General Elec- tric and manufacturing compa- nies, died March 4 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. He had complications from can- cer.

Mr. Larkin worked for GE from 1949 to 1958, initially as a test en- gineer before moving into sales. He became director of marketing for TV transmitter and studio equipment. He later did sales work for the farm equipment business Allis-Chalmers, where he was responsible for the Cen- tral American region. He transferred with the com-

pany from Mexico City to Wash- ington in 1972 and spent several more years doing international marketing with manufacturing companies. Lawrence Kirkman Larkin, a

Rockville resident, was born in Flint, Mich., and raised in Wash- ington, where he was a 1940 grad- uate of Wilson High School. He served in the Navy during World War II, trained as a radio and ra- dar technician, and saw combat in the Pacific. He was a member of the Associ-

ation of Former Intelligence Offi- cers. In 1956, he married Margarita

Iturbe. They separated in 1990. Besides his wife, of Gaithersburg, survivors include four children, Lawrence I. Larkin of Rockville, Frederick Larkin of Stuttgart, Germany, Carlota “Lolly” Tulloch of Ashburn and Alejandro “Alex” Larkin of Jacksonville, Fla.; a sis- ter; and five grandchildren.

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