Payne, Virginia (1908–1977)

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Payne, Virginia (1908–1977)

American actress who portrayed the title role on the popular radio soap opera "Ma Perkins" for 27 years. Name variations: Ma Perkins. Born on June 19, 1908, probably in Cincinnati, Ohio; died on February 10, 1977, in Cincinnati.

Known for decades as the kindly old woman from "Rushville Center," Virginia Payne portrayed the title role on the popular daytime radio serial "Ma Perkins" for 27 years (7,065 consecutive broadcasts), from its debut on December 4, 1933, to its demise in 1960. The show, which previewed for 16 weeks out of Cincinnati station WLW, then moved to Chicago, sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. It was P&G's first foray into network radio, and the show's success sent sales of Oxydol laundry detergent soaring; it also helped make "soap opera" part of the American lexicon. Aired in 15-minute segments, five days a week, the serial centered on the everyday problems of a widowed grandmother (Ma Perkins), who ran a lumberyard in a small town with the help of her old friend Shuffle Shober, played by Charles Egleston. Plots included Ma's ongoing family problems, with particular focus on married daughter Evey, president of the gossipy women's club The Jolly Seventeen, and a "heartache" to her mother. Actor Murray Forbes, who played Evey's long-suffering husband Willie Fitz, was also with the soap opera from the onset, but other characters had as many as three different interpreters during the run of the show.

Purportedly, Ma Perkins' character was originally conceived as a raucous old woman, much like Marie Dressler 's character in the popular Min and Bill movies. Payne, who was 23 when she originated the role, softened the character into a tolerant, warm-hearted woman who was constantly at odds with the town's small-minded residents. So successful was her portrayal that listeners frequently wrote to her for advice on personal problems.

After 13 successful years in Chicago, the show moved to New York, where it enjoyed continued popularity for another 13 years. When it went off the air in 1960, loyal listeners wrote thousands of letters of protest to the station. During the show's final broadcast, a re-creation of Thanksgiving dinner at Ma's house, the station was flooded with calls from angry, disappointed fans, some of them in tears.

For Payne, however, the end of the show was liberating. She went on to appear on other radio and television shows as well as on stage; one of her later roles was that as "Apple Granny" on a commercial for apple juice. In 1963, she portrayed Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night at the Alley Theater in Houston, under the direction of Nina Vance . During her career, Payne was also an active member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and served a term as its national president.