Dorothy Shay (April 11, 1921 – October 22, 1978) was an American in style comedic recording artist within the late 1940s and early 1950s, who later became a character actress. She sang for the USO during World War II. When she started her career as a “straight” singer, she took vocal classes to lose her Southern accent. Shay was born Dorothy Sims in Jacksonville, Florida. She was recognized because the “Park Avenue Hillbillie”.

Dorothy changed her name to “Shay” so she would not be confused with Ginny Simms, one other vocalist of the day, selecting “Shay” to honor her mentor Betty Shay (later Betty Corday). While performing with Morton Gould and his orchestra, she performed an encore, “Uncle Fud”, a hayseed novelty number that became common and launched her solo singing profession. She signed with Columbia Data and recorded a sequence of hit data. 1 in Billboard journal’s Greatest-Promoting In style Albums. Spike Jones’s CBS radio present because the feminine vocalist.

This album was a part of Columbia’s preliminary catalogue of one zero one LP records, which had been the first LPs ever released. 1 album on the Billboard chart. The 1951 Abbott and Costello film Comin’ Round The Mountain featured special introductory billing as Dorothy Shay’s first motion picture; she performed a nightclub singer concerned in a hillbilly feud. She was widespread in nightclubs, radio, and tv. In her singing engagements, she performed dressed as a classy urbanite while talking like a rural Southerner. The film was a superb showcase for her musical and comic abilities; all 5 musical numbers have been carried out by Shay.

She was married briefly to Dick Looman from 1958 to 1959. After a interval of inactivity within the 1960s, she returned to show business as a personality actress within the 1970s. She had a recurring function as Thelma, first proprietor of the Dew Drop Inn, within the Television series The Waltons. Billboard. August 2, 1947. p. Shay died of a coronary heart assault on October 22, 1978, in Santa Monica, California. Upon her death, the writers of The Waltons wrote her character off, with the point out that she bought the Dew Drop Inn and moved to California.

30. Retrieved March 21, 2019 – via AmericanRadioHistory. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit group. Through the use of this site, you conform to the Phrases of Use and Privacy Policy. Textual content is offered underneath the Artistic Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; further phrases may apply. 54. Retrieved October 29, 2019 – by way of AmericanRadioHistory. Billboard. January 24, 1948. p. This web page was last edited on 26 January 2025, at 06:Fifty eight (UTC).