Alleen Mae (Beller) Starr (1923 - 2013)

Born 25 Jan 1923 in Kansas City, Clay, Missouri, United States

Died 27 Jan 2013 at age 90 in Berlin, Camden, New Jersey, United States

Biography

Sally (Beller) Starr is Notable.

Sally Starr is best known as a prominent 1950s & 60's celebrity television personality. Using a cowgirl persona, she appealed to local TV audiences of several generations of children through American radio, Broadway stage, movies and as a recording artist for over 60 years. Fans remained loyal in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (referred to locally as the Delaware Valley), and embraced her cowgirl personality as part of their own family identity, and sometimes referred to her as "Aunt Sally".

Starr was born Alleen Mae Beller in Kansas City, Missouri, and legally changed her name to Starr in 1941. Her parents, Charles and Bertha Beller, encouraged her to enter the world of show business, for which she exhibited both talent and ambition. At the age of 12 years, she and her sister Mildred, billed as the "Little Missouri Maids," made their debut on a CBS radio program titled "Blush Creek Follies".

Her broadcast and entertainment career began with creation of the character of a blonde cowgirl who hosted an afternoon children's program for Philadelphia station WFIL-TV (now WPVI) from the 1950s to 1971. Her program was usually known as Popeye Theater or a variation, which presented Popeye cartoons and Three Stooges shorts.

Aside from her television and recording career, Starr appeared in the Three Stooges feature film, The Outlaws Is Coming, as sharpshooter Belle Starr. She had small roles in such films as The In Crowd and Mannequin Two: On the Move. She became a social icon & was very popular in the Philadelphia area & lived in the suburbs near the city. Starr died at a Berlin, New Jersey nursing home on January 27, 2013, two days after her 90th birthday.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Starr_(TV_hostess)

• https://secure.flickr.com/photos/23299097@N07/2229229438/

• Obituary