Iva Withers

Pearl Iva Edith Withers (July 7, 1917 – October 7, 2014) was a Canadian-born American actress and singer, best remembered as a replacement player who had long runs in some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's biggest musical theatre hits.

She was a replacement or standby in more than a half dozen other Broadway shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and she also toured North America in the leading roles in Carousel, South Pacific and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

As a child in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she appeared in local vaudeville productions and continued to sing in church during her teenage years.

[1][5] She recalled, "There was even a Saturday that summer [of 1945] where I played Julie in Carousel at the matinee and Laurey in Oklahoma!

She also played in American national tours as Julie in Carousel, Nellie in South Pacific and Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

[2][3] Iva Withers died in Englewood, New Jersey at age 97 on October 7, 2014 at the Lillian Booth Actors Home.

[12] Kokich was an American World War II veteran who increasingly struggled with alcoholism; by the late 1960s, this prevented him from working, and he eventually returned to his native Croatia.

After leaving the stage, Withers supported herself and their two children by doing clerical work for physicians, retiring at age 77.