Doris Eaton Travis, Actress & Last Ziegfeld Star Dies at age 106

[rkolinski]

One really has to read more than one article to learn everything about this Amazing woman, born March 14, 1904. This is just a partial list of her experiences and accomplishments in life.

1. Attended dance class at age 4
2. Age 7 - First appeared on stage in the 1911 fantasy play "The Blue Bird"
3. Age 14 - Hired underage in 1918 and appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies
4. Appeared in Silent films during the 1920's and 2 "talkies," the 1933 "Reckless
Decision" (aka "Protect Your Daughters" and "Suspicious Mothers," an exploitation film)
and "Man on the Moon (1999)"
5. In 1936, she was hired by the Arthur Murray Dance Studies, worked for and then
owned 18 schools
6. Wrote a column for the Detroit News entitled "On Your Toes" and hosted a local
television show for 7 years (one of her students was Henry Ford II)
7. Continued to Manage her own 880 acre ranch in Oklahoma w/successful racing quarter-
horses even after her husband died in 2000.
8. In her 70's, she earned a high school diploma. Then, in 1992, aged 88, Eaton Travis
graduated cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with a history major and Phi Beta
Kappa key. She was halfway to a masters's degree when she decided to focus on her
memoirs instead.
9. Was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oakland University in 2007. She responded by
singing and dancing “Ballin’ the Jack,” a song popularized by Lillian Lorraine, a
renowned Ziegfeld Follies’ star.
10. A little more than two weeks ago Mrs. Travis returned to Broadway to appear again at the
annual Easter Bonnet Competition held by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, this time
at the Minskoff Theater. She did a few kicks, apologizing that she no longer performed
cartwheels.

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