Elisa Ryan; Cotillion Instructor
Elisa Ryan, who taught both dancing and social graces to three generations of prominent Los Angeles families, died last Monday at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. She was 88.
The cotillion instructor for Shirley Temple and the children of Richard M. Nixon, Rosalind Russell, Ray Milland and other well-known parents had retired in 1971.
In an interview after her retirement she recalled that she began teaching dance in private homes in Bel-Air and Beverly Hills in the late 1920s. From those sessions, she said, evolved classes and dances at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club and Bel-Air Country Club that attracted thousands of children over 40 years.
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