Beatrice “Bea” Benaderet

 Beatrice “Bea” Benaderet (April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968)

She appeared in a wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley, supporting roles as Blanche Morton in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and as the original voice of Betty Rubble during the first four seasons of The Flintstones, and in The Beverly Hillbillies as Pearl Bodine. She did a great deal of voice work in Warner Bros. animated cartoons of the 1940s/1950s, most famously as Granny. When Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz decided to develop a program called I Love Lucy, Benaderet, who had worked with Ball on My Favorite Husband, was first choice to fill the role of Ethel Mertz, but was ultimately unavailable to accept it since she had already been cast for the fledgling television production of The Burns and Allen Show. Vivian Vance, a relatively unknown character actress and singer, was eventually cast in the part. Benaderet did eventually appear in a guest role on I Love Lucy on January 21, 1952, as "Miss Lewis", a love-starved spinster neighbor. Benaderet was busy during the last decade of her life, starting with a voice role as Betty Rubble in the animated series The Flintstones, which debuted in 1960. The Flintstones reunited Benaderet with her 1940s co-workers Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone) and Mel Blanc (Barney Rubble and Dino). She was also considered for the role of Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies by producer Paul Henning, who felt she was too buxom and feminine for the character he envisioned as a frail but caustic spitfire. Bea was cast instead as Cousin Pearl, before the character moved to Petticoat Junction. Benaderet was diagnosed with cancer in 1967, which led to her departure from Petticoat Junction in what was hoped would be a temporary absence. However, she died the following October at age 62, and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, CA.