Carol Bruce

Carol Bruce, born Shirley Levy on November 15, 1919, in Great Neck, New York, was an American singer, Broadway performer, and film and television actress whose career spanned several decades. The daughter of Beatrice and Harry Levy, she grew up in a Jewish family and had a sister, Marilyn. Her family's frequent relocations led her through several schools, including Jamaica High School, Girls' High School, and New Utrecht High School, before she graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. Despite studying violin for eight years, she never received formal singing instruction.

Bruce launched her professional career as a band singer in the late 1930s, working with Larry Clinton and his orchestra. She subsequently sang with Ben Bernie's orchestra between 1940 and 1941. In 1943, she recorded a number of tracks for the wartime V-Disc program with Red Norvo's Oversea Spotlight Band, among them "I'll Be Around," "Embraceable You," and "Abraham." Her radio work included appearances on The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, Carton of Pleasure, and The Henny Youngman Show.

Her Broadway career ran from 1940 to 1967 and began with Louisiana Purchase, a musical featuring songs by Irving Berlin, who had discovered her performing at a nightclub in Newark, New Jersey. She went on to appear in Along Fifth Avenue in 1949, as well as productions including New Priorities of 1943, Pal Joey, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Henry, Sweet Henry, and A Family Affair. Among her most notable stage achievements was becoming the first actress to portray Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat since the 1932 revival. When Bruce took on the role in 1946, her performance drew favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the part in the show's 1927 premiere, reprised it in the 1932 revival, and appeared in the 1936 film adaptation.

On television, Bruce was perhaps best known for her recurring role as Mama Lillian Carlson on WKRP in Cincinnati, appearing in 10 of the series' 90 episodes. She also appeared in 5 of the 47 episodes of the follow-up series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati.

Her only marriage, to Milton Nathanson, ended in divorce and produced a daughter, Julie, who became an actress, singer, and playwright and married jazz guitarist Larry Coryell. Bruce's grandsons, Murali and Julian Coryell, are both musicians. Bruce died on October 9, 2007, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 87. She was survived by her sister and her two grandsons. Following her death, she was cremated and her ashes were given to her cousin.