Bea Benaderet was born in New York City, and moved to San Francisco with her parents when she was five. She entered show business there at 12 when the manager of radio station KGO discovered her singing in a children's production of "The Beggar's Opera" and hired her as a singer.After graduating from St. Rose Academy High School, she attended the Reginald Travis School of Acting in San Francisco, appeared with stock companies and little theaters and worked as an actress, singer, writer, producer and announcer on radio there.
She launched her network radio career in 1936, and appeared as a regular with Orson Welles on "The Campbell Playhouse" and as a guest on other important shows before getting her first big break. That was a regular spot on "The Jack Benny Show," for which she created the character of Gertrude Gearshift, the Brooklynese telephone operator who became a familiar character over the years on the Benny series.
Among the scores of other radio roles she created were Amber Lipscott in "My Friend Irma", Gloria the maid on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet", Eve Goodwin on "The Great Gildersleeve" and Mrs. Carstairs on "Fibber McGee and Molly".
As a sought-after and always-busy dialectician, comedienne and character actress, Miss Benaderet had a voice that was popular among millions of radio listeners long before any of them knew what she looked like or took much note of her name.
Before "Petticoat Junction" she was featured on television for eight years as Blanche Morton, the next-door neighbor of George Burns and Gracie Allen on "The Burns and Allen Show", and as Cousin Pearl Bodine during the first season of "The Beverly Hillbillies", an artful characterization that was responsible in great measure for her winning the starring part on "Petticoat Junction".
Before her untimely death in 1968, Miss Benaderet lived in Studio City, Calif., with her husband, Gene Twombly, a motion-picture sound technician. She had two children, Jack (Bannon) and Maggie.
[Editor's note - Bea died on October 13, 1968 of lung cancer]