Betty Garde

Katharine Elizabeth Garde, known professionally as Betty Garde, was an American actress who worked across stage, radio, film, and television throughout a career spanning several decades. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 19, 1905, she was performing in productions with South Philadelphia's Broadway Players by the age of 15 and later attended the University of Pennsylvania.

Garde's Broadway career extended from 1925 to 1966. She made her debut playing Alma Borden in Easy Come, Easy Go during the 1925–1926 season and went on to appear in productions including The Best People, The Social Register (1931–1932), and The Primrose Path (1939). Standing 5'10", her height contributed to her being cast as Aunt Eller in the original 1943 Broadway production of Oklahoma!, one of the most prominent roles of her stage career. Her final Broadway credit was Agatha Sue, I Love You (1966), in which she portrayed Mrs. Gordon.

Radio became a significant part of Garde's professional life after she joined CBS in 1933. She performed on approximately three dozen programs, among them Lorenzo Jones, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Front Page Farrell, Maudie's Diary, Perry Mason, The Big Story, Theatre Guild on the Air, The Fat Man, and The Eddie Cantor Show, on which she played all the women's roles. In 1934 she worked alongside Orson Welles on the CBS Radio series The American School of the Air, and she subsequently appeared in several of his radio productions, including Les Misérables, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, The Campbell Playhouse, and Ceiling Unlimited.

Her film work began with early sound pictures, including The Lady Lies (1929), Damaged Love (1930), and Queen High (1930). She later appeared in a series of notable film noir productions: Call Northside 777 (1948), in which she played a prosecution witness whose testimony leads to the conviction of an innocent man; Cry of the City (1948), in which she portrayed Miss Pruett; and Caged (1950), where she was cast as a murderous prison inmate.

Garde's television appearances included the role of Belle Starr on the January 27, 1952 episode of The Gabby Hayes Show, recurring appearances on The Honeymooners as the Kramdens' maid Thelma, and a role as farmer Aggie Larkin on The Real McCoys. She appeared on The Untouchables in an episode starring Elizabeth Montgomery, and had roles in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "The Midnight Sun," opposite Lois Nettleton.

Garde died on December 25, 1989, in a hospital in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 84. No cause of death was reported, and she left no immediate survivors.