As we continue “Time for Some Texas Tea,” we are learning about the career of Irene Ryan today. Born Jessie Irene Noblitt in 1902 in Texas, Ryan had a varied career, appearing in vaudeville, film, radio, Broadway, and television. Irene’s father was an Army sergeant who grew up in North Carolina, and her mother grew up in Ireland. Her only sibling, Anna, was seventeen years older than her. A couple of years after she was born, the family moved to California.

Ryan was destined to be a star. When she was eleven, she was paid $3 for singing “Pretty Baby” in a contest in San Francisco. When she was fourteen, she lied about her age and began working for a stock company after two years of high school. She never did graduate.

At age twenty she married Tim Ryan who was a comedian and writer. They performed together in vaudeville and were known as “Tim and Irene.” When vaudeville died, the couple got their own radio program that was also called “Tim and Irene.” Between 1935 and 1937, they made eleven short comedies for Educational Pictures. She played the flighty wife (was there any other kind of wife in the 1930s? Not according to film and later television). The duo substituted for Jack Benny in The Jell-o Summer Show for NBC’s red network in 1936.

In 1941, Ryan was in her first film, Melody for Three. She would also be in Bonzo Goes to College and Mighty Joe Young.

The couple divorced in 1942, twenty years after they married; they had no children. Irene toured with Bob Hope during WWII and was featured on his radio show for two years. Tim had a busy big-screen career, and the two of them were in four films together. Before he passed away, Tim appeared in 152 films, including From Here to Eternity, Mr. and Mrs. North, and The Stratton Story.

In 1946, Irene (who continued to use “Ryan” as her stage name) married Harold E. Knox. He was involved in film production. They stayed together for 15 years before divorcing.

While she continued making films, Irene also kept a hand in radio. She joined the cast of “The Jack Carson Show” as a neighborhood store owner running a candy store and lending library. She appeared in 30 films in the forties and fifties.

Her first television role came about in 1955 on The Danny Thomas Show. During the rest of the decade, she could be seen in five additional series.

Her last film role was for Desire in the Dust in 1960. From then on she only worked in television. During that decade she had spots on My Three Sons, Wagon Train and Mister Ed among others.

However, in 1962, she was offered the role that made her famous: Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. As Daisy Moses, Jed’s mother-in-law, she moved with the family from Tennessee to Beverly Hills where she continued the way of life that she lived before. When she showed up for her audition with her hair in a bun and her feisty attitude, everyone knew they had found Granny.

Her role as Granny earned her Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in 1963 and 1964. She lost to Shirley Booth for Hazel in ’63 and Mary Tyler Moore for The Dick Van Dyke Show in ’64.

Like the Clampetts, Irene also enjoyed being outside and enjoying nature. She owned a summer cottage on Clark Lake in Jackson County, Michigan. Also, a la Granny Clampett, Irene released a cookbook called Granny’s Hillbilly Cookbook and actually included a recipe for possum. The cast mentioned that she used to put on a very large Christmas feast for them around the holidays.

In the late sixties and early seventies, Irene was a celebrity panelist on Password.

After the Rural Purge we have discussed so many times when the show was ended, Ryan starred as Berthe in “Pippin” on Broadway, directed by Bob Fosse in 1972. She was nominated for a Tony but lost to Patricia Elliott for a “Little Night Music.”

Her last acting credit was for Love American Style in 1972. Ryan was a heavy smoker and her castmates had all worried about her. In 1973, she suffered a stroke while performing on Broadway. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she passed away in April of 1973 at age 70. She did not die from cancer but from the tumor and heart disease.

Since she had no children, the year before she died, Ryan set up the Irene Ryan Scholarships Foundation through the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She had built up a considerable fortune, investing wisely and saving much of her money, and these are still being given out today. Ryan mentioned that her role of Granny allowed her to walk around freely without being recognized when she was not made up to be an elderly person. She embraced the role of Granny and even included the word on her tombstone. Irene acknowledged that she had never been a big star in the entertainment world, but she said that “I loved show business, every minute of it. Why? To really love show business, you have to be OF it, not just IN it. That’s me honey, I’m OF it.” I guess it is similar to writing. You’re not just doing it, you are it. And the fact that she could follow her passion and still be free to be herself off the set without being recognized was an added bonus. She was generous with her talent, with her time for her castmates, and for the up and coming actors who are still benefiting from her sharing her wealth today.