Mary Elizabeth Glab (Bettina Dearborn) 1920-2008

GLAB, DEARBORN, HAVERSTICK, LEE

Posted By: J. N. (email)
Date: 12/26/2008 at 17:52:33

Telegraph Herald
Dubuque, iowa
Thursday, Dec 25, 2008

Bettina Dearborn

Bettina Dearborn, born Mary Elizabeth Glab, 88, formerly of Dubuque, died Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008, at Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, Md.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 29, at Mount Calvary Cemetery Chapel, with the Rev. Bill Biver officiating. There will be no visitation. The Hoffmann Schneider Funeral Home, 1640 Main St., is in charge of arrangements.

As a young child, called Betty and later Bet, she was the daughter of John Irvin Glab and Martha Harriet Dearborn.

She was raised in her early years in Chicago, Stone City and Dubuque, Iowa, their home state. After her parents' divorce and subsequent death of her father, she and her mother moved to California where she took her mother's maiden name and Betty became Bettina, a name that would carry her through her years as a professional dancer.

Upon graduation from Hollywood High, Bettina began dancing in films, among them, Cecil B. DeMille's "The Chocolate Soldier" staring Rise Stevens and Eddie Nelson. By the time it was released in 1941, she was in New York working with Eugene Loring's Dance Players. Throughout the 1940s, she was featured in the ballet performances at Radio City Music Hall and traveled in Europe with the USO. The 1950s brought her to Broadway in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds" followed by "The King and I" with Yul Brynner, where over the years, she took on several different dancing parts. After the show closed on Broadway, she continued dancing in revivals, later re-staging choreography for various venues. Throughout these years, she danced from time to time, in a variety of shows including "The Children's Suite" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin." As her active dancing career came to a close, she opened a dance studio, later retiring.

Bettina was a shrewd financial investor with a strong leaning toward philanthropy, giving generously to the New York Public Library and other charitable endeavors.

Surviving are her cousins, Patricia Haverstick Lee, of Waukesha, Wis., and Duncan Glab, of Dubuque; along with an extended family and friends in New York and the Washington, D.C., metro area.

She was preceded in death by her longtime companion, Wayne Larrabee.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.hoffmannschneiderfuneralhomes.com.