Mae Williams; Singer, Actress, Polio Activist

Mae Williams, a singer and actress who overcame polio and other problems to work as an entertainer for six decades, has died. She was 77.

Williams, who became a major fund-raiser for victims of the paralyzing disease essentially eliminated by Jonas Salk’s vaccine, died in her sleep Jan. 19 at her Studio City home, according to longtime publicist Frank Liberman.

The blond singer was dubbed show business’ “Almost Girl” because each time she reached the brink of national fame, either disease or disaster befell her. Her repeated trips down the comeback trail were described on Ralph Edwards’ television show “This Is Your Life” in 1955. Five years later, a burglar stole the symbol of that high point--a gold charm bracelet the show had presented her that included symbols of her life.

Williams scored early success as a teenager at Hollywood High School when her soprano voice won her engagements as a vocalist for the big bands of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. She went on to make several records and tour the United States and Europe as a nightclub singer.

In Los Angeles, she was a regular entertainer at top clubs, including Ciro’s, Mocambo, Billy Gray’s Band Box and Slapsie Maxie’s.

In 1950, Williams had just begun a successful engagement at New York’s storied Copacabana when she was stricken with polio. Despite relapses, she returned to the microphone.

She also waged her own private cross-country fund-raising tour for the Sister Kenny Foundation to assist polio victims.

“I hope to raise about $25,000,” she told The Times on June 20, 1955. “But if I only raise $25, that will be all right, so long as I help make people realize that polio is far from being eliminated as a disease.”

Williams created and starred in a mid-1950s series for Los Angeles’ KTLA-TV Channel 5 called “Breakthrough,” about celebrities who had overcome personal misfortunes. But three weeks before the show was scheduled to be picked up nationally, Williams fell at a Los Angeles recording studio, breaking her back and several ribs.

Her streak of misfortune continued when she invested in a nightclub that folded. She filed for bankruptcy in 1958.

Despite these setbacks, the irrepressible Williams continued to work.

A Times reviewer evaluated her singing in a 1964 concert at the Lindy Opera House: “Miss Williams knows how to make a song glow, and she lent warmth and expression to Debussy’s ‘Air de Lia,’ to Puccini’s ‘Vissi d’Arte’ from ‘Tosca,’ and to the various folk songs in which she accompanied herself on autoharp.”

Williams is survived by her husband, former actor and comedian Johnny Hayden, her daughter, Penny Perry, and four grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be sent to the Mae Williams Memorial Fund in care of Victor Perry, P.O. Box 57677, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413.