I was 9 years old and was in New York City with my mother as my chaperone in rehearsal for “Sail Away” where I played one of the annoying kids on the cruise ship Carolonia who were giving ship’s activities director, Mimi Paragon (Elaine Stritch) a hard time in “The Little One’s ABC’s”. I had a night off and we managed to get tickets for “The Miracle Worker” with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft which was at the Playhouse Theater. I remember sitting there, mesmerized watching Patty on stage. We met briefly after the performance at the stage door, a 9 year old actor and a 13 year old actress.
1990 –
My cousin, Russell “Rusty” Hamer, former child star of “Make Room For Daddy” committed suicide and Paul Petersen, himself a child TV star from “The Donna Reed Show”, started A Minor Consideration to try and reach out and help former child performers who were having issues dealing with adulthood. I connected with the group and through it re-connected with Anna (Patty’s real name). She told me about seeing me in “Sail Away” after we opened and about seeing me in “Oliver!” in 1963, having a crush on Davy Jones, who was playing The Artful Dodger (Davy, as almost everyone knows, went on to be one of TV’s The Monkees). I was finishing up my 27 year Army career and she had married Michael Pearce who had been an Army sergeant when they met. We kept in touch with letters and e-mails and would occasionally cross paths. She was always very kind, nice, and had quite a sense of humor.
When my fiancee died in an accident in January of 2015, Anna was one of the first to reach out to me and help me get through that emotionally devastating time.
The last time I heard from her directly was in February 2016 and, even though she was not well, almost everything in her e-mail was “how are you doing?” and concern about me.
That’s the Anna I will always remember, giving freely of herself and asking little in return.
Anna "Patty Duke" Pearce, my friend 1946-2016. R.I.P.
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