Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as the first deaf performer to become a television regular. Born Audree Lauraine Bennett, she was raised in Minnesota, was deaf from age two due to meningitis, attended the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, and in 1952 graduated from the famed Gallaudet University of Washington, DC. Also in 1952, she married Kenneth Norton and relocated with him to Sulphur, Oklahoma where he was on the faculty of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf; Audree made her small screen bow in Royal Crown Cola commercials on a Houston station in the 1950s and in the mid 1960s moved with her husband to San Francisco where in 1967 the couple founded the National Theatre of the Deaf. She was to tour with the ensemble throughout the country, even being seen on NBC and playing on Broadway, and in 1968 became the first deaf actress on a network television show when she appeared on an episode of "Mannix" entitled "The Silent Cry", her character a young girl in a phone booth who lip reads plans for a kidnapping, then goes to the show's title hero, played by Mike Connors, for help. Audree worked on a number of series of the time including "Family Affair" and "The Streets of San Francisco" and won a 1974 Clio Award for the Kodak commercial "Memories", but found herself blackballed over her labor grievance against ABC after after the network refused to cast deaf performers in the "After School Special" episode "Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me". Remaining in the Bay area, she taught at Ohlone Community College up to her 1993 retirement, lived out her days in Fremont, and died following a protracted illness.
Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as the first deaf performer to become a television regular. Born Audree Lauraine Bennett, she was raised in Minnesota, was deaf from age two due to meningitis, attended the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, and in 1952 graduated from the famed Gallaudet University of Washington, DC. Also in 1952, she married Kenneth Norton and relocated with him to Sulphur, Oklahoma where he was on the faculty of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf; Audree made her small screen bow in Royal Crown Cola commercials on a Houston station in the 1950s and in the mid 1960s moved with her husband to San Francisco where in 1967 the couple founded the National Theatre of the Deaf. She was to tour with the ensemble throughout the country, even being seen on NBC and playing on Broadway, and in 1968 became the first deaf actress on a network television show when she appeared on an episode of "Mannix" entitled "The Silent Cry", her character a young girl in a phone booth who lip reads plans for a kidnapping, then goes to the show's title hero, played by Mike Connors, for help. Audree worked on a number of series of the time including "Family Affair" and "The Streets of San Francisco" and won a 1974 Clio Award for the Kodak commercial "Memories", but found herself blackballed over her labor grievance against ABC after after the network refused to cast deaf performers in the "After School Special" episode "Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me". Remaining in the Bay area, she taught at Ohlone Community College up to her 1993 retirement, lived out her days in Fremont, and died following a protracted illness.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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