Tyra Vaughn

Life and career

She was born on March 13, 1923, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oldest daughter in a household of a well respected police Sargent. She attended West Scranton High School from which was she was active in the drama club and graduated in June 1941. With the outbreak of World War II, she jumped into the war effort and joined the USO as a professional dancer. Discovered by Bob Hope, upon the war's completion she went to work as a dance instructor for the Hollywood Athletic Club and was discovered a second time by producer Samuel Goldwyn and became a part of his 1940s Goldywn Girls ensemble. She later appeared in such movies as The Harvey Girls (1946), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), Down to Earth (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Duchess of Idaho (1950), and Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1953). Becoming a friend of actress and swimmer Esther Williams, she landed a recurring role on the Lux Video Theatre with Williams' help appearing in several episodes between 1950 and 1957. When the series ended, she left acting and lived the rest of her days in Southern California teaching dance until her 1988 retirement. She died on August 9, 2015, in Northridge, California, from natural causes. Her remains were donated to medical science at the UCLA Medical Center. Although Vaughn never married, she was proud of the fact that she was one of the few independent adoptive mothers of her generation. In 1947, she adopted a baby boy and raised him completely on her own (something very rare for a woman to do, much less even fathom, at the time). She was survived by her son, a daughter-in-law, one younger sister, and several nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Filmography