Queenie Smith

Queenie Smith was an American actress who worked on Broadway, in films and on television. Born in Texas, she moved to New York, where she studied at the Metropolitan Opera's ballet school and danced with the Metropolitan Opera Company as a teenager. In the 1920s she appeared on Broadway, including as Tillie Olsen in Rudolf Friml's Cinders, and her final Broadway credit came in 1934 with Every Thursday. She went to Hollywood, and after the musical featurette Masks and Memories she was cast in Mississippi and played Ellie May Chipley in Show Boat (1936). From 1946 she took character roles in films and television, usually feisty older women; among them were The Great Rupert (1950), Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) and a recurring part as Mrs. Whipple on Little House on the Prairie. She also taught young actors and started a talent agency, and her last role was in Foul Play (1978).