Bobbi Jordan

Bobbi Jordan, born Roberta Carol Bartlett on July 11, 1937, in Hardinsburg, Kentucky, was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. The daughter of Dixie (née Jones) and Elgin Grigsby Bartlett, a local restaurant manager, she grew up in Kentucky before her parents divorced in 1950 while the family was living in Louisville. Jordan subsequently relocated from Kentucky to Chicago and then to Los Angeles, where she originally intended to study and pursue a career in opera. While working as a waitress in California, she was overheard singing in a kitchen by a club manager, who offered her a part in the club's musical production. Cast as the lead in a Cinderella production at that venue, she attracted the attention of the William Morris talent agency, which signed her to a contract.

Jordan made her television debut as a series regular in 1966, playing Ada in the ABC series The Rounders. She followed that with a co-starring role as Tootsie Woodley in the CBS series Blondie, beginning in 1968. During the mid-1970s she joined the cast of the daytime soap opera General Hospital, portraying Terri Webber Arnett, a former nightclub singer, and remained a series regular from March 1976 through September 1977. She also held a recurring role as Estelle on the short-lived CBS series Joe and Sons, and played Judy Overmeyer in the NBC sitcom Turnabout, which aired from 1978 to 1979 and was written by Steven Bochco. Her television guest appearances included The Odd Couple, Charlie's Angels, Adam-12, Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, Quincy M.E., Nero Wolfe, Highway to Heaven, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Love American Style, and Ironside.

Her film work included a role as a waitress in the 1967 Walter Matthau comedy A Guide for the Married Man. She appeared in the 1974 musical film Mame, starring Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur, in the role of an Irish maid who marries Mame's ward, Patrick Dennis.

Throughout her career Jordan remained active on the stage. Her Broadway credit was the 1971 production of Company, the Stephen Sondheim musical comedy. She also held a leading role in the first national tour of Company, and her additional stage credits included South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, and Damn Yankees.

On October 23, 1968, Jordan married television writer William "Bill" Jacobson, who had served as the lead writer for The Kate Smith Show in 1960. Jacobson, born September 22, 1919, predeceased her on July 19, 2011, after 43 years of marriage. Jordan is survived by her son, screenwriter Jordan Roberts, born Bruce Robert Jordan on June 19, 1957, two grandchildren, Brandon and Cameron, and her stepdaughter, Jessie Jacobson. Bobbi Jordan died of a heart attack at her home in Encinitas, California, on November 9, 2012, at the age of 75.