Good bye to a friend 

I had not planned on this blog,  I don't guess anyone is ever ready for the sudden passing of a friend.  Lorraine Yarnell fell victim to an aneurysm last evening at her home in Norway.  Although I had  lost touch with her, I remember her fondly. Here is a clip of her with then husband Robert Shields composing the team of "Sheilds and Yarnell".

 

For a moment in time the act of "Shields and Yarnell" was very hot.  They guested on the Glen Campbell show for a summer and were offered their own variety show that next fall.  

One of my favorite memories is an extended tour around the country as the opening act for "Sheilds and Yarnell".  We played mostly restored Vaudeville theatres for a week at a time.  Plenty of opportunities to bond with both of them.  Here is a picture from that time which hangs on my wall.  We used to joke that we had the same haircut.

It made for a great show, a silent novelty headliner and an over talkative novelty act opener.  We performed with a full orchestra and it is one of the last times I ever heard the charts for my act played full out.  

Lorraine and Robert were much like Sandi and me.  Robert the hyperactive for whom performing came very naturally, and Lorraine the studied disciplined dancer who spent hours rehearsing.  I adored both of them and they treated me as an equal, not some hired-gun opening act.  They split up the act and the marriage and moved from Tarzana.  I am back in touch with Robert via the Internet and have run into him a couple of time since those days.

Lorraine was the costumed robot in Mel Brooks "Space Balls" voiced by Joan Rivers.  After that I heard she went back to dancing full time and eventually became dance captain on several cruise ships.  I assume she met her current husband on the high seas and they moved to Norway.  

She will be missed but remembered.  

As you were,

Jay