Carol Brady Is Gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    I was stunned to learn Florence Henderson, aka, Carol Brady, died yesterday, of heart failure, at the age of 82.  Another icon of our generation gone.

                                      I recall the period, while I was ninth grade, during that first season of "The Brady Bunch," when Friday night revolved around it.  I lived vicariously through the show, because I was from a small family, and thought a larger one would be more exciting, and I would be less lonely.  I never thought of the show as realistic, but I derived some emotional satisfaction from it.  As I matured, I could see the comic falsity behind it all, and just accepted it.  What I could not accept, years later when I grasped it, was the show's rampant sexism.

                                       But, darlings, that was the way things were!

                                       However--

                                       Florence Henderson will forever be known as Carol Brady, but she should be a special footnote in the hearts and minds of Theater Queens.  She had a gorgeous singing voice, and she started out in New York musical theater.  You can hear her as Nellie Forbush on the cast album of a City Center "South Pacific," and, during the original run of "The Sound Of Music." she did a stint as Maria.  It wouldn't surprise me if she had done it at Westbury Music Fair, or other renowned regional centers at the time.

                                      Which goes to show, while she may have not made the A-list, like Mary Martin, there was much more to her than Mrs. Brady, or later, the Wesson Oil Lady.

                                         Florence Henderson was a class act.  And now that act is gone, she will be missed.

                                         Rest In Peace, Florence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!