Laurie Anders; Retired Actress

Laurie Anders, best remembered for her straight delivery of the single line, “Ah like the w-i-i-i-de open spayices,” on “The Ken Murray Show” during the early 1950s, has died at her Tarzana home. She was 70.

Miss Anders died Monday of cancer, said her husband Leslie Raddatz.

Born and raised on a ranch in Casper, Wyo., Miss Anders worked as a stenographer and secretary to the head of a steamfitters and plumbers union in her hometown, before singing in a country band in Wyoming.

In the 1940s, she came to California and worked as a cigarette girl at Ciro’s in Hollywood before Ken Murray signed her to appear in his “Blackouts” musical show in Los Angeles and New York. She later appeared on Murray’s television show and her sole function was to appear at various intervals in a cowgirl costume and deliver the single line about the “wide open spaces.” In 1951, Miss Anders recorded the song “I Like the Wide Open Spaces” with Arthur Godfrey, which sold half a million copies.

In 1953, she starred in “The Marshal’s Daughter” with Murray and Hoot Gibson and soon afterward retired. In addition to her acting career, Anders was a dancer, trick roper, ventriloquist and a jujitsu expert.

In 1974, she married publicist Leslie Raddatz and became known as LoRaye Raddatz.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her stepsons Eric Raddatz of Wake Forest, N. C., Paul Raddatz of New London, Conn., and Mark Raddatz of Sedona, Ariz.; stepdaughters Irene Hawkins of Hanford, Calif., Mollie Lawery of Venice; Ann Farris of San Mateo, Calif., and Lynn Carlson of Oakland, Calif.; and five step-grandchildren.

Visitation is planned from 2 to 8 p.m. today at J. T. Oswald Mortuary, 6944 Reseda Blvd. in Reseda, which is handling the arrangements. A graveside service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, 11160 Stranwood Ave. in Mission Hills.