Vivian Vance Celebration

Cherryvale to Celebrate Vivian “Ethel Mertz” Vance 100th Birthday

On Sunday, July 26, 2009, Cherryvale-born Vivian Vance would have celebrated her 100th Birthday. She lost her long battle against cancer on August 17, 1979, at the age of seventy. The City of Cherryvale will remember and honor her life and career with two local events.

The Cherryvale Community National Bank will pay tribute to her 100th birthday with displays, photos, and collectibles from her professional career and life on the I Love Lucy TV shows on Thursday, July 25 from 9am to 4pm.  This tribute will also be on public display Friday and Monday during the same business hours.

On her birthday, Sunday July 26th, the Cherryvale Museum, 215 East Fourth Street between 2pm and 4:30, will celebrate her 100th with free cake and punch. Extensive displays, photos, and memorabilia from her theatrical and television career will be exhibited.

Local residents Carilyn Clark and Jack Regan, Vivian’s second cousins, will cut the birthday cake and share their memories of Vivian Vance. Imogene Littell, another cousin, resides in Vivian’s birth home on West 6th Street in Cherryvale. “I Love Vivian” T-shirts, buttons, and booklets will be available for purchase.

Born in Cherryvale in 1909, Vivian Roberta Jones was the second of 6 siblings born to Robert Andrew and Euphemia Mae Ragan Jones. From a young age, Vivian enjoyed performing and relished being the center of attention along with her childhood neighbor Louise Brooks, the 1920s legendary silent screen actress. Viv had a passion for acting and was constantly being thwarted by her strictly religious mother.

After graduation from Independence High School, Independence, Kansas, Vivian changed her last name to Vance, after Vance Randolph, a member of her high school theatre clique. During a successful musical, Broadway, and film career, on July 28, 1951, Desi Arnaz finally found his “Ethel” for his forthcoming TV series. Vivian had no interest in TV shows and could not imagine that the new media was ever going to amount to anything. Along with his TV show director and TV writer, Desi convinced Vivian to give it a try with a weekly check of $350. From that day on her life became entertainment history.

She was the first actress to win an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in 1954 and nominated in 1955, 1957, and 1958 for the same Emmy. In 1991, the I Love Lucy TV series was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. In 2003, the Cherryvale Chamber of Commence dedicated 6th Street as the “Vivian Vance Memorial Street.”

Today the world’s most beloved situation TV comedy can be summed up as a simple story about family, friendships and fun. Lucille Ball and “second-banana” Vivian developed a lifelong, sister-like relationship, both on-screen and off. Together they were magic! For years they were television’s funniest half-hour.

Submitted by Wayne Hallowell of the Leather Rock Hotel in Cherryvale.

***

The Leather Rock Hotel is a historic railroad hotel bed and breakfast/suites and museum.

Cherryvale is in SE Kansas (Montgomery County), between Independence and Parsons.