Kaye was born on November 20, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then she has been on the cover of Life magazine, played the Tooth Fairy on Captain Kangaroo, and sipped tea in the Bronx with Mother Teresa. She knew she wanted to perform by the time she was five, and even before graduating high school, began to find work doing imitations of her favorite stars all around Ohio. Kaye performed in both Burlesque and Vaudeville, and before discovering the musical theatre, toured with the Spike Jones Orchestra for two years as featured vocalist and tuba player.

She went on to play every name nightclub that existed throughout the 1950's and '60's including The Bon Soir and The Blue Angel in New York, The Hungry i in San Francisco, and Mr. Kelly's in Chicago. She has appeared on every talk/variety show there ever was including, The Jack Parr Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Steve Allen Show, The Perry Como Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Muppets.

Film credits include The Girl Most Likely with Jane Powell, A House Is Not A Home with Shelley Winters, Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster, Which Way To The Front with Jerry Lewis, and The Ritz with Rita Moreno and Jerry Stiller.

Where she really made a name for herself was on Broadway in such shows as The Golden Apple, in which she introduced the standard, "Lazy Afternoon", the original company of Carnival as Rosalie, Molly, as Molly Goldberg, and Ruth in Pirates of Penzance.

Other credits include several record albums, including the first recording of Charles Schultz' Peanuts characters with Arthur Siegel, Ado Annie in a best selling version of Oklahoma! with Nelson Eddy, and several Ben Bagley compilations.

Kaye has also performed Mama Rose in Gypsy with both Jack Cassidy and Gavin MacLeod, and been seen in Over the River and Through the Woods, Quartet, Funny Girl, Papermill's Follies, and two all-star versions of Dan Goggin's Nunsense.

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Copyright © 2010 Kaye Ballard