A Sister Act Finally Reunited, In Heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                 "Why, oh why, oh, why oh?
                                                    Why, did I ever leave Ohio?"
                                                     --"Wonderful Town," by Leonard
                                                   Bernstein, Betty Comden  and
                                                      Adolph Green


                                 I don't have to tell many of my girls that that is Edie Adams and Rosalind Russell as the Sherwood Sisters--Eileen and Ruth--from the musical "Wonderful Town," which opened back in 1953, at the Winter Garden.  They were quite a sister act.

                                   Instead, I want to talk to you about the saga of a pair of sisters I knew, one who just passed away, day before yesterday.  The Long Sisters began their lives in Lima, Ohio.  Mary Jane, the eldest, born in 1940, came to this town first, to become first a children's librarian, then an actress and then a tickets manager, for years, at the New York Philharmonic. That is right, darlings.

                                      Mary Jane married a fellow actor, named Byron Wright, who survives her. Betty was never wed.

                                     Betty, whom I was closest to, worked as a children's librarian, until her retirement in 2000.  Both resided in Lincoln Towers, behind Lincoln Center.  Betty passed away ten years ago on January 19 of this year.

                                      Today, I received the sad news of Mary Jane's passing, and I was saddened.  It was like a piece of my life had been severed.

                                       The Long Sisters were so good to me.  They provided Thanksgiving Dinner for many of us single (me at the time) folk who had nowhere else to go.   Their Christmas Cookie party every last Saturday in December, with the famous Miracle Whip dip, was the Social Event Of The Holiday Season.  I went to it for 22 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       It was Mary Jane, who, on my 51st birthday, gave to me Ramsey, a stuffed ram I was very partial to whenever I visited Betty.  I burst into tears when presented with him, remembering  to say thank you, and to ask if it was OK.  "Betty would have wanted you to have him," I recall Mary Jane saying.

                                       I had already planned this year to have a 10th Anniversary party for Ramsey. Now, in honor of Mary Jane, I most certainly will!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Betty and I often performed, for a time, in staff shows when we worked
together.  I remember one time a group of us did "The Book Report," from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," and, in keeping with the photo, Betty soloed on "One Hundred Easy Ways To Lose A Man," from "Wonderful Town!"  She was terrific.

                                             They both were. It was not unusual to run into them at the theater or ballet on evenings out. They went everywhere together, and I ran into them many times.

                                                Now, this sister act is reunited in Heaven!  May we all be happy for them!

                                                 But their departure is sad for many of us!   I could just cry!

                                                 In fact, I have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!