* Irma Bowker; One of the Original Rockettes

Irma Bowker, 89, one of the original Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. Bowker performed with a precision dance troupe first called the Russell Markert Dancers and later the Roxyettes when it danced in New York City’s Roxy Theater. The name eventually evolved into the Rockettes after the troupe made its debut at the famous Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center when the theater opened in December 1932. Bowker told younger dancers at a Rockettes reunion in 1986 that she was paid $45 a week for hoofing through five shows a day seven days a week. On Friday in Canandaigua, N.Y.