Mary Lee Robb Cline, 80; Played Gildy’s Niece on ‘The Great Gildersleeve’

Mary Lee Robb Cline, 80, a radio actress best known for her role as Marjorie, Gildy’s niece, on the program “The Great Gildersleeve,” died Aug. 28 of heart failure at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, her daughter Alexandra Smith said.

Born Feb. 15, 1926, in Streator, Ill., to parents Alex S. Robb, an NBC executive, and Madeleine Bourg Robb, she and her parents moved to Los Angeles in 1939. She graduated from University High School in 1944 and attended UCLA.

As Mary Lee Robb, she made her radio debut in 1947 on the “Lum and Abner” program. A small part in a 1948 episode of “The Great Gildersleeve,” a spinoff of “Fibber McGee and Molly,” led to her full-time role as Marjorie, which she played until 1954.

She also appeared on “The Penny Singleton Radio Show” and others before retiring to raise her daughter and her son, Robb Smith.

Robb’s first marriage to Charles Vance Smith ended in divorce, and in 1983 she married William H. Cline, who died in 2005. She had most recently been a resident of Palm Desert.