Remember the feeling that creeps over you when a television anchor reports the death of an actor that you have enjoyed watching or a writer you have read extensively or a musician whose renditions stirs your soul or a public figure you respect? Even though we’ve never met, we feel as if we personally have lost a friend. I certainly encountered those feelings this week with the announcement of the death of Yvonne Craig, the original “Batgirl.” But the sorrow ran deeper this time because the two of us had been classmates at Sunset High School in Dallas Texas. Sadly, we were the kind of friends who promised to stay in touch forever, but never did.
We met in Spanish class, but we also shared a love for our favorite English teacher. Yvonne was a serious student, a trait which probably led to our brief friendship. She was a quick wit with a great sense of humor. However all of us at school were very much aware that she was a dancer first. Of course, she always performed at talent shows, but it was far more than seeing her leap across the stage in a white tutu. She was the first person I knew whose every move and every word emanated purpose and direction.
She rarely participated in after school activities because she studied dance every afternoon well into the evening. She walked down the halls like the ballerina she was. Having taken dance classes for three years as a child, I was aware that she always stood in one of the five ballet positions. Although I knew, with effort, I could copy her position, she automatically assumed such a stance, with her posture arrow straight.
The 1954 yearbook, The Sundial, pays tribute to this classmate who did not graduate with us, but left school early to begin her theatrical career as the youngest member of The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in New York City.
I only saw her in person one other time. Either she was home on vacation or the dance troupe was touring in the area. But while I was in college, we both ended up at Mrs. Hood’s classroom door after school one day. In hindsight, since I could visit with my favorite teacher any time, perhaps I should have left to allow the two of them time alone. But I was so glad to see Yvonne again and I wanted to hear her story. She entertained us both with tales of her life for a couple of hours.
According to her official obituary, Yvonne, three years after she joined the ballet company, was “accidentally discovered by John Ford’s son Patrick and cast for the lead in the movie The Young Land.” This role led to others including two with Elvis Presley. But the role that continues to define her acting career was that of Batgirl in the 1966 TV series of Batman . In contrast to the other two stars, she performed her own stunts, including those on a motorcycle. In 1974, she revised the role to appear in Public Service Advertisements for equal pay for women.
Her last acting role came as the voice of Grandma in the 2009 Olivia cartoon series for Nickelodeon. She also enjoyed a successful career as a real estate broker; and at its inception, Yvonne, with her younger sister went into the prepaid phone card business producing phone cards for charitable events as well as promotional phone cards for films and cartoons. She and her husband traveled extensively, “preferring adventure type travel, which has taken them to many countries and back to Africa seven times.”
But several facts in her obituary particularly caught my attention. In addition to the Equal Pay PSA, she was, for years, a public voice for worker unions and free mammograms for women who cannot afford them. (Yvonne died from complications brought about from breast cancer than had metastasized to her liver.) She and her husband were advocates for education on all levels. And she volunteered time to tutor and to mentor disadvantaged students. Secondly, she wrote a book of anecdotal memoirs From Ballet to Batcave and Beyond, a title I’ve added to my list of books to read if it’s ever reissued.
My favorite story about Yvonne occurred during the 1970s when our children were old enough to watch the Batman reruns. Whenever Batgirl appeared, I would remind them that I had gone to school with her. Always, the children countered, “But, she’s so much younger than you.”
The Yvonne I knew, the one who resembled the pixie look of a young Audrey Hepburn, would have laughed out loud at the comment. As I said, she saw the humor in everything.
On her webpage, her family shares her last wish: “No one should waste a moment of their time mourning for her loss in sadness, but instead celebrate the life she had been fortunate to live...She felt she had been blessed in many ways.”
2015
Comments