Trivia

She maintained several warehouses of movie memorabilia and boasted one of the world's largest doll collections with almost 8,000.

She took over the role of gargoyle Laverne in Disney's Le Bossu de Notre-Dame (1996) following the death of Mary Wickes and had to match Wickes' voice and performance so that audiences wouldn't be able to detect the difference. She repeated the role in the "Hunchback" sequel.

In 1955 she and her husband purchased the ranch of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Chatsworth, Ca.

Perhaps best-known to Baby Boomers for her role as Josephine, the Lady Plumber on TV advertisements for Comet cleanser, a role in which she appeared for more than a decade beginning in the mid-1960s.

She delivered the eulogy at Rita Hayworth 's funeral.

Following the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020, she became the last surviving major movie star of the 1930s. Despite this status, Withers was not remembered during the "In Memoriam" segment at La 94e cérémonie des Oscars (2022), broadcast some six months after her death in August 2021.

Has known her share of sorrow over the years. Second husband Ken Errair perished in a plane crash in 1968; her mother died of cancer in 1983, as did her son Randy the following year.

Though best known for children's roles and comedy numbers, she introduced the classic Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn torch song "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" in the 1944 stage flop, "Glad To See You," which closed in Philadelphia during its tryout engagement. It would have marked Withers' Broadway debut. Styne and Cahn had previously written songs for some of Withers' film hits.

As a child actor she did voices in Looney Toons for Warner Brothers. She also performed most of the voices in the Willie Whopper series.

In a 1974 Hollywood Superior Court suit in which she contested the plane crash in which her husband was killed was due to the Bass Lake Airport outside Fresno, now closed, was a death trap, at which she was awarded a $200,000 settlement.

Interviewed in "Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television" by Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup (McFarland, 2002).

Second husband Kenneth Errair was one of the original members of the classic pop group the Four Freshmen. He had long since retired from performing to become a successful businessman at the time of his death in a 1968 plane crash.

While a child actress under contract to 20th Century-Fox, she was Shirley Temple's closest rival as a box office draw, ranking among the Top 25 Stars four times, peaking at #6 in 1937.

At the age of three she was singing, dancing and imitating W.C. Fields on a professional level, starring as Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop on the radio show "Aunt Sally's Kiddie Club."

Interviewed in "Amerian Classic Screen Interviews" by John Tibbett and James Walsh, 2010.

Her five children and their respective dates of birth are as follows: Wendy Leigh Moss, September 26, 1948; William Paul Moss, III, July 9, 1950; Walter "Randy" Moss, January 29, 1952; Kenneth E. "Ken" Errair, Jr., May 19, 1957; and Kendall Jane Errair, March 3, 1960. All were born in Los Angeles County, California.

Upon her death, she was cremated and her ashes returned to her surviving family.

Daughter of Walter Edward Withers (1900-1948) and Lavinia Ruth Elble (1897-1983).

Her late husband, singer Ken Errair, came out with one solo LP on Capitol away from the Four Freshmen. It was accurately entitled "Solo Session." He also played several brass instruments and the bass.

She died on the same day as fellow actress Markie Post.

Born at 11:07pm-EST.