By KATHARINE RAMSDEN
On this day in 1992, Player Helen Hayes MacArthur died. Her career spanned 82 years, and she was known as the First Lady of American Theatre. She was the second person and first woman to achieve EGOT status by winning an Emmy, a Grammy an Oscar and a Tony. Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
The annual Helen Hayes Awards, which have recognized excellence in professional theatre in greater Washington, D.C., since 1984, are named for her. In 1955, the former Fulton Theater on 46th Street in New York was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre. When it was torn down in 1982, the nearby Little Theater was renamed in her honor.
Katharine Ramsden is a (semi-retired) former journalist and corporate communications executive. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she is a recently new Player, avid reader and one time a cappella singer.
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