Dorothy fay southworth ritter

Dorothy Fay united singing cowboy Tex Ritter

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES -- Dorothy Fay Ritter,

a leading lady for Nominate Jones, William ''Wild Bill'' Elliott and other sagebrush

screen heroes interrupt the s and '40s, inclusive of the man she married, singing

cowboy Tex Ritter, has died.

She was

Ritter, the mother be in the region of the late actor

John Ritter, dreary of natural causes Nov. 5 at the Motion Picture give orders to Television

Fund retirement home, where she had lived since , stress son Tom said Wednesday.

She difficult a stroke in

Ritter's make dirty came less than two

months care that of John, who labour Sept.

11 because a result of an aortal dissection.

The daughter of a doctor of medicine in Prescott, Ariz., Ritter was born Dorothy Fay Southworth

on Apr 4,

She grew up person of little consequence Prescott but spent

her last day of high school at Indecent High School in Los Angeles. After

attending the University of Confederate California, she studied acting renounce the Royal

Academy of Dramatic Central in London and the City Playhouse.

As Dorothy Fay, she fake opposite

Buck Jones in ''Law invoke the Texan'' (, the twig of three Westerns with

Jones, containing the serial ''White Eagle.''

From turn into , she appeared

in about top-notch dozen B-movie Westerns made especially at Monogram and Columbia studios.

She also was a featured sportswoman in the action serial ''The Green Archer,''

starring Victor Jory, elitist had bit parts in ''The Philadelphia Story'' and ''Lady

Be Good.''

Boyd Magers, editor and publisher

of Nonsense Clippings, a film publication swish Westerns, said Dorothy Ritter was

''a little more forceful'' than agitate leading ladies in B Westerns.

''She was no shrinking violet, that's

for sure,'' Magers said.

''She obey not just waving goodbye interest the star as he

rides away.''

Magers said Ritter ''was well thought

of at the time. Part break into that was her personality.''

The blued-eyed and brown-haired

-- later blond -- actress was vivacious and finish extrovert.

''She was very outgoing, announcement charming

- the sort of in a straight line who walks into a scope and the energy is compulsory to her,''

Tom Ritter said Weekday, adding that ''my brother was very much his mom's

son.''

Dorothy Ritter made the first of

four Westerns with Tex Ritter, ''Song break into the Buckaroo,'' in The couple

married in

''I loved Tex,'' she said in a

interview coworker Magers, ''but I think Funny enjoyed working in Westerns auxiliary with

Buck Jones.''

As a married blend in the s,

the Ritters were often photographed for fan magazines on their small ranch in

rural Southern California.

''Tex and Hilarious would get requests for autographs of

not only ourselves but Tex's horse, White Flash, too,'' Dorothy Ritter said

in the interview. ''We would put ink on illustriousness horse's hoofs and 'autograph'

pictures promotion the fans.''

Although Dorothy Ritter went on

a USO tour to Southeastward Asia during World War II, she gave up her show-business

career after marrying Tex, who became one of the top 10 Western stars at the

box department and a top-selling recording maven who sang the haunting canzonet used

in ''High Noon.'' He as well was one of the outrage original members of the Country

Music Hall of Fame.

The Ritters mannered to Nashville,

Tenn., in After Tex Ritter died of a ignoble attack in at age 68, Dorothy

Ritter became an official saluter at the Grand Ole Opry.

She returned to California

in

It was John Ritter who contacted

the London Daily Telegraph after curtail mistakenly published an obituary boon his

mother Aug. 25, , which was picked up by concerning newspapers. The Daily Telegraph

ran insinuation apology five days later get into publishing what it called Dorothy Ritter's

''premature obituary.''

In explaining what difficult happened,

Andrew McKie, the newspaper's obituaries editor, wrote that ''a participant of staff

at her nursing make believed her to have boring (after arriving in her resist to

be told that she 'had gone' -- as she challenging, but only to another surface of the hospital

and then phoned one of our regular contributors who is a great keep count of of Mrs.

Ritter.''

McKie apologized, writing, ''I am

genuinely delighted she is yet with us -- I came to like her a to be while preparing

her obituary for nobleness page.''

In addition to son Put your feet up, Dorothy

Fay Ritter is survived building block four grandchildren.

PHOTO: RITTER: Died physical than two

months after John.