Laurie Anders

Singer, dancer, trick roper, ventriloquist, martial-arts (jujitsu) expert and deadpan-comedienne Laurie Anders was born and raised on a ranch in Casper, Wyoming. She worked as a stenographer and secretary to the president of a steamfitters and plumbers union there, then started singing with a country-and-western combo in Wyoming. Coming to Hollywood in the 1940s, she worked as a cigarette girl at Ciro's until being discovered by Ken Murray, who signed her to appear in his "Ken Murray's Blackouts" revue in Los Angeles and New York. She was later featured regularly in Murray's television show wearing a cowgirl costume and looking unsmilingly at the camera while repeating her line about the "wide open spaces." By 1951, it was put into a song, "I Like the Wide Open Spaces", with Arthur Godfrey. It sold 500,000 copies. After starring in 1953's "The Marshal's Daughter", she retired. After her 1974 marriage to publicist Leslie Raddatz, she took the name LoRaye Raddatz. Besides her husband, she was survived by her stepsons Eric Raddatz of Wake Forest, NC, Paul Raddatz of New London, CO, and Mark Raddatz of Sedona, AZ; stepdaughters Irene Hawkins of Hanford, CA, Mollie Lawery of Venice; Ann Farris of San Mateo, CA, and Lynn Carlson of Oakland, CA; and five step-grandchildren. The J. T. Oswald Mortuary in Reseda, CA served her family and friends, and she was interred at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, 11160 Stranwood Ave. in Mission Hills, CA.