Jo Ann Sayers

Jo Ann Sayers, born Miriam Lucille Lilygren on October 22, 1918, in Seattle, Washington, was an American actress whose career encompassed Broadway, Hollywood films, summer theater, radio, and television. She died on November 14, 2011, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 93.

Growing up in Seattle, Sayers participated in dance, studied piano and violin, and performed in school plays. She enrolled at the University of Washington in a pre-law program while also taking drama classes. A talent scout who observed her in a student production arranged a screen test in Hollywood, which led to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first credited film role came in 1938, in Young Dr. Kildare, and she went on to appear in a series of films through the late 1930s and into the 1940s, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Fast and Loose, Honolulu, Drunk Driving, and The Women, all in 1939, followed by The Light of the Western Stars and The Man With Nine Lives in 1940. Her film work continued into the 1950s, with an uncredited appearance in Main Street to Broadway in 1953.

In 1940, Sayers was cast in the titular role of the Broadway production of My Sister Eileen, which opened on December 26, 1940. She performed opposite Shirley Booth, who was approximately two decades her senior. Sayers remained with the production until June 1942.

Her departure from the cast coincided with her marriage on June 10, 1942, to Anthony A. Bliss, a New York lawyer and patron of the performing arts. The couple had three children before eventually divorcing. Sayers subsequently worked in summer theater, radio, and television. In 1968 she married architect Charles K. Agle, and the two remained together until his death in Princeton, New Jersey.