Alberta Nelson

Alberta Nelson (August 14, 1937 – April 29, 2006) was an American actress born in Erie, Pennsylvania, to Frank Alton Nelson and Katherine Storkel Stephens Nelson. She had one half-sibling, Irene Stephens McAleer. Nelson completed her secondary education at the Andrews School for Girls in Willoughby, Ohio, in 1955, then briefly enrolled at St. John's Hospital School of Nursing in Cleveland, Ohio, before redirecting her ambitions toward the performing arts. By the late 1950s she had relocated to New York City, where she worked as a model and pursued theatrical roles.

Her entry into acting was encouraged by her cousin, theatrical producer John Kenley, who helped her gain experience at the Erie Playhouse in Erie, Pennsylvania. There she eventually took the lead role in a production of The Seven Year Itch. That regional work led to Broadway, where Nelson appeared in The Wall and Once There Was a Russian between 1960 and 1961, as well as in The Gang's All Here.

Nelson transitioned into film and television in the early 1960s. She became a recurring presence in the American International Beach Party film series, appearing in seven pictures across the franchise as one of Eric Von Zipper's "mice," with credits including Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Pajama Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). She also appeared in two additional American International productions from the same period, Sergeant Deadhead (1965) and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). On television, she made four appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, playing waitress Flora Malherbe in all but one of those episodes, and one appearance on Mayberry RFD. In 1965 she appeared in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, "Go Tell The Birds And The Bees," as Ritchie's teacher Miss Reshovsky. Her final credited film role came in The Wild Scene (1970), in which she starred as Dr. Virginia Grant, a female psychiatrist. A 1970 appearance on Love, American Style marked the end of her credited screen work.

Nelson married Ryan MacDonald around 1956 in Erie. Their son, Adam Ryan, was born in New York City around 1957 but died of SIDS at two months of age and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Philadelphia. Nelson and MacDonald divorced around 1962. She later moved to California to continue her acting career and subsequently returned to Erie, where she married Herbert Lester Gilman on February 14, 1971. She and Gilman had no children together, though Gilman had three adult children from a prior marriage.

Nelson died on April 29, 2006, in Erie, Pennsylvania, at the age of 68, following a multi-year battle with cancer of the jaw and throat. She was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Erie on May 2, 2006, beside her parents.