Betty Ebert Ragotzy; Actress, Theater Founder

Betty Ebert Ragotzy, 71, an actress who performed at Hollywood’s Turnabout Theater and later co-founded the highly respected Barn Theater in Augusta, Mich. Born in Hitchcock, Okla., Miss Ebert grew up in Southern California, where she won the “outstanding actress” award at San Bernardino High School and later studied fine arts at UCLA. She began her involvement with Michigan theater in 1945 when she won an apprentice scholarship to work at the Kalamazoo Civic Theater. She met and married another actor, Jack Ragotzy, and with him co-founded the popular Barn Theater and established its summer stock company. Wintering in New York for many years, the actress performed in such television shows as “Studio One,” “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “You, the Jury” and “The U.S. Steel Hour.” On March 19 in Kalamazoo, Mich., of pneumonia.