Donna Douglas, RIP

Incredibly, the bodacious ingenue was 82 years old. And there is a Catholic connection, according to USA TODAY: 

Donna Douglas, who played hillbilly bombshell Elly May Clampett on the baby-boomer-beloved 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, has died. She was 82.

Charlene Smith, her niece-in-law, confirmed Friday to USA TODAY that she died of pancreatic cancer on New Year’s Day at Baton Rouge General Hospital, near her home in Zachary, La.

The Baton Rouge paper, The Advocate and other media outlets, including local TV station WAFB, also confirmed her death, although most put her age at 81.

“She was 82,” Smith said firmly, adding jokingly, “She’s going to haunt me for that.”

Douglas’ death leaves only one member of the show’s original cast still alive: Max Baer Jr., who played Elly May’s cousin, Jethro. He is 77.

…Smith described Douglas as a “very good Christian lady. We all loved her,” she said. “Whenever she gave presents, they always came with (passages) from Scripture.”

Douglas, a former Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans, was born in Pride, La., and returned to live in Zachary, after her time in Hollywood, to be near her only child, son Danny Bourgeois. She is survived by him, by three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, one brother and other extended family members, Smith said.

Smith said the family plans a private funeral.

Douglas grew up in Pride and attended a local Catholic high school, where she played softball and basketball, and was a member of the school’s first graduating class.

But she’ll always be known as Elly May — the tomboy-but-sweetly sexy blond Clampett daughter who never seemed to be aware of her effect on men, and who referred to their Beverly Hills mansion swimming pool as the “SEE-ment pond.”

Read more. 

Wikipedia notes:

Douglas frequently performed as a gospel singer and spoke at churches across America. She has recorded several gospel albums, the first being released in 1982. She recorded a few minor country music records during the 1970s and 1980s.

She also wrote a children’s book titled Donna’s Critters & Kids: Children’s Stories with a Bible Touch, which has Bible stories featuring animals and is combined with a coloring book for ages two to seven.

Douglas spoke to church groups, youth groups, schools, and colleges. One focus of her charitable work was speaking in support of various Christian children’s homes, mostly in her native American South. She has also appeared at conventions and trade fairs.

And there’s this:

On June 10, 1993, Douglas and her partner, Curt Wilson, in Associated Artists Entertainment, Inc., filed a US$200 million lawsuit against Disney,Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, their production companies, and Creative Artists Agency claiming that the film Sister Act was plagiarized from a book, A Nun in the Closet, owned by the partners. Douglas and Wilson claimed that in 1985 they had developed a screenplay from the book. The lawsuit claimed that there were more than one hundred similarities and plagiarisms between the movie and the book/screenplay owned by Douglas and Wilson. The lawsuit claimed that the developed screenplay had been submitted to Disney, Goldberg, and Midler three times during 1987 and 1988. In 1994, Douglas and Wilson declined a $1 million offer to settle the case. The judge found in favor of Walt Disney Pictures and the other defendants. Wilson stated at the time, “They would have had to copy our stuff verbatim for us to prevail.”

Rest in peace, Elly May.