Doris Eaton Travis, the one-time Ziegfeld Follies star (and last surviving Ziegfeld girl), who was still kicking at the age of 106 at this year's (2010) Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnnet competition on April 26-27, has passed away.
Following her Ziegfeld years, Doris Eaton Travis was a featured star in many musical reviews, Broadway comedies and silent films. Nacio Herb Brown's classic "Singing In The Rain" was written for and introduced by Doris in the Hollywood Music Box Review. She starred in films made in New York, Hollywood, England and Egypt and after an absence of over sixty years, returned to Hollywood in 1999, and at the age of 95 was cast for a cameo role in Jim Carrey's "Man In The Moon."
In 1936, she was hired by the Arthur Murray Dance Studios in New York as a tap dance instructor. She remained with the Arthur Murray company for thirty-two years, advancing from teaching to owning her own school. Eventually Eaton Travis established and owned a total of eighteen Arthur Murray studios across Michigan. She authored a column of dance advice and commentary for the Detroit News entitled "On Your Toes" and hosted a local television program for seven years.
In 1992, aged 88, Eaton Travis graduated cum laude from the University of Oklahoma. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oakland University in 2004 at the age of 100. In January 2008, Doris Eaton Travis, served as the Grand Marshal of the opening parade for the Art Deco Weekend festival in Miami Beach.
For the past number of years she has performed her dance magic on the New Amsterdam stage in the annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefits. She also continued to actively manage and operate her 880 acre ranch in Norman, Oklahoma.
