Obituaries : Edwina Barry, 102; Vaudeville Performer

Edwina Barry, a vaudevillian headliner who shared billings with Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, died of pneumonia, a spokesman said Saturday. She was 102.

Miss Barry died at UCLA Medical Center late Thursday night after being admitted to the hospital June 28 with a concussion suffered in a fall at the retirement home where she lived, said Dale Olson of the Actors Fund. The accident forced the Actors Fund to cancel a planned birthday party for Miss Barry.

Born in Boston, Miss Barry was the daughter of Edward Barry, an authority on Shakespeare and manager of the old Howard Theatre. After schooling at the Sisters of Notre Dame Convent, Miss Barry’s playwright-director brother Jimmy Barry began her theatrical training and she first appeared in stock companies in boy’s parts and as an ingenue.

Her first starring role came in 1908 in Porter J. White’s “Faust.” Forming her own company, Miss Barry toured the vaudeville circuit as Dotty Plumdaffy, the new servant girl in the “The Home Breaker.”

“She would play the circuits as Miss Edwina Barry and Co.,” Olson said. “She was very popular all over the country and, in fact, all over the world for about a 20-year period.”

Miss Barry’s career earned her billing with such stars of the time as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Sir Harry Lauder, Eva Tanguay, Sophie Tucker and Kate Smith.

In the late 1940s, she had her own radio talk show in China and wrote columns for American newspapers. By World War II, however, her career had waned and Miss Barry moved to Los Angeles, where she became a Navy librarian.

Miss Barry, who was never married, left no survivors.