Audrey (Cotter) Meadows (1922 - 1996)

Born 8 Feb 1922 in New York City, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 3 Feb 1996 at age 73 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Audrey (Cotter) Meadows is Notable.

Audrey Cotter is best remembered for playing Alice Kramden in the television show, "The Honeymooners."^[1][2]

Audrey Cotter was born February 8, 1922 in New York City, the youngest of the fourchildren of the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter and his wife, the former Ida Miller Taylor. The couple had been Episcopal missionaries in Wuchang, Hubei, China. Audrey's older sister was actress, Jayne Meadows. She attended high school at the Barrington School for Girls in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.^[2][3][4][5]

After high school, Audrey trained as a coloratura soprano and sang in the Broadway musical "Top Banana." She soon after became a regular on television in "The Bob and Ray Show." She was hired to play Alice on "The Jackie Gleason Show" after Pert Kelton was forced to leave the show.^[2]

When "The Honeymooners" became a half-hour sitcom on CBS, Audrey continued as "Alice." She returned to play Alice after the show was over when Jackie Gleason would produce occasional Honeymooners specials in the 1970s, as well as on other shows like "The Steve Allen Show" and "The Jack Benny Program." Audrey was the only member of "The Honeymooners" cast to earn residuals after the "Classic 39" episodes of the show from 1955-56 started airing in reruns, thanks to a clause in her contract encouraged by her brother Edward, a lawyer.^[2]

She appeared in a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat", in feature films, on Dean Martin's television variety shows and celebrity roasts, and in "Too Close for Comfort" (1982–85). She guest-starred on The Red Skelton Show, made an appearance in an episode of Murder, She Wrote ("If the Frame Fits"), and made an appearance in an episode of The Simpsons ("Old Money"), wherein she voiced the role of Bea Simmons, Grandpa Simpson's girlfriend. Her last work was an appearance on Dave's World, in which she played the mother of Kenny (Shadoe Stevens).^[2]

Audrey first married Randolph Rouse in 1956 and divorced in 1958. No known children.^[2]

On August 24, 1961, Audrey married her second husband, Robert F. "Bob" Six, president of Continental Airlines, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He died on October 6, 1986.^[2]

Audrey served as director of the First National Bank of Denver for 11 years, the first woman to hold this position. From 1961–1981, she was an advisory director of Continental Airlines.^[2]

In October 1994, Audrey published her memoirs, Love, Alice: My Life As A Honeymooner.

In 1995, Audrey was diagnosed with lung cancer and given a year to live. She declined all but palliative treatment. She died on February 3, 1996, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after slipping into a coma, five days before her 74th birthday. She was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, next to her husband. ^[1][2]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK4X-L4KS : accessed 3 January 2022), Audrey Cotter Meadows, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 05 Feb 1996; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Plain Dealer, The, born-digital text.
3. ↑ "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXLV-VVK : 2 March 2021), Audrey Cotter, 1927; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XM89-XNL : accessed 3 January 2022), Audrey Cotter in household of Francis J M Cotter, Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 150, sheet 28A, line 27, family 8, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2176; FHL microfilm 2,341,910.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K71N-7YY : 28 February 2020), Audrey Cotter in household of F J Cotter, Sharon Town, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 3-38, sheet 8A, line 8, family 163, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 510.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 17 July 2018, 03:18), entry for Audrey Meadows(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LHKK-P4F); contributed by various users.
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