Florence Lake

Florence Lake was an American actress who started out as a child in her family's vaudeville act and became best known for playing the leading lady opposite Edgar Kennedy in most of his comedy shorts. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, she was the leading lady of the Raynor Lehr stock theater company before her film debut in New Year's Eve (1929). Her petite build and high-pitched, sing-song delivery suited the flighty, scatterbrained parts she made her own, above all Mrs. Kennedy in the shorts, which ran until 1948. She later took character roles in film and television, most notably as the telephone operator Jenny in Lassie through its ten farm seasons from 1954 to 1964, the longest run of any performer on that series. She also appeared in The Lone Ranger and in the first color episode of Adventures of Superman, and had later parts on Dragnet and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She died in 1980.