Adams, Edie 1929-2008 [A pseudonym] (Edith Adams, Edith Adams Enke, Elizabeth Edith Enke)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 16, 1929, in Kingston, PA; died of complications from pneumonia and cancer, October 15, 2008, in Los Angeles, CA. Singer, actress, comedian, business owner, almond farmer, fashion designer, and author. Adams was a woman of many talents and multiple accomplishments, but her admirers may remember her most vividly for one of the least of them: her tongue-in-cheek television appearances as the sultry spokeswoman for Muriel cigars in a series of commercials that aired over a period of nearly twenty years. Many other fans remember Adams as the occasional vocalist and full-time comic foil of her husband, the celebrated television comedian Ernie Kovacs. Some may recognize Adams as the actress who brought Daisy Mae to life in the Broadway musical Li'l Abner in 1956, earning an Antoinette Perry Award for best supporting actress in the process, or who appeared with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in the 1960 film The Apartment, or who held her own as a nightclub and cabaret singer and host of her own television variety show, Here's Edie, in 1963. A few fans will remember that, after Kovacs died in a car crash in 1962, leaving his widow deeply in debt, Adams threw herself into a demanding schedule of episodic television appearances and specials that lasted until the debt was discharged. She then resumed a more routine schedule of stage, film, and television appearances that lasted for many years. Her last appearance on episodic television was in Designing Women in 1990. Most people did not realize that Adams had a private life that was both creative and profitable. She owned an almond grove that provided her with ample financial security, and this enabled her to pursue a variety of other interests. Adams designed expensive party gowns, for example, and owned a chain of beauty and hair salons. She recorded the occasional vocal album and devoted much effort to restoring and publishing her collection of tapes from the popular Ernie Kovacs television series. Adams revealed her private life to the public in her 1990 memoir, Sing a Pretty Song: The "Offbeat" Life of Edie Adams, including the Ernie Kovacs Years.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Adams, Edie, and Robert Windeler, Sing a Pretty Song: The "Offbeat" Life of Edie Adams, including the Ernie Kovacs Years, Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 18, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2008, sec. 1, p. 41.

Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2008, p. B6.

New York Times, October 16, 2008, p. A26.