Helen Dowdy

Helen Dowdy was an American actress and singer whose Broadway career ran from 1930 to 1955. She originated Lily and the Strawberry Woman in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at its 1935 premiere, reprising both in two further Broadway revivals and, on the 1951 studio recording, singing Maria as well. She played Queenie in two Show Boat revivals, Willie May in Mamba's Daughters, Ella in Run, Little Chillun, and Hattie in Kiss Me, Kate, closing her Broadway career as Bessie Bolt in Mrs. Patterson in 1954.