Model, Actress, Singer, Entertainer, she started as a hat model. Named Queen of the Polar Bears when she was the first to break through the ice of Lake Michigan and was caught by the lens of an ambitious photographer in a fetching pose that appeared in the papers all across the country. She always claimed it was that photograph which captured her husband, Samuel Ferebee Williams, president of the Sweets Candy Company that made the Tootsie Roll. She first came to New York City to appear in Very Good Eddie. After her marriage she retired from show business until the death of her husband in 1931. She and her sister Dagmar, who had been cutting player piano rolls for Duo Art and Steinway, at that time started performing as a "sister act" known as the Nordstrom Sisters. They were at the Ritz in London for a year in 1939. They often performed on board ship as "society performers" in First Class and always traveling with their automobile on board. They preferred the Cunard and Norwegian Lines and were on the maiden around the world voyage of the Siagaford. They continued to perform at private parties and kept an active social calendar in New York City until Dagmar's death in 1976. Chez Nordstrom brought many artists and performers together, Al Hirschfeld captured a good likeness of the sisters on one of these occasions. Her health continued to deterioate and she spent her last months surrounded by the children of her 'adopted' nephew David McJonathan-Swarm. The youngest 'my Sam' named for her late husband.
(bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm)
(bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm)
Model, Actress, Singer, Entertainer, she started as a hat model. Named Queen of the Polar Bears when she was the first to break through the ice of Lake Michigan and was caught by the lens of an ambitious photographer in a fetching pose that appeared in the papers all across the country. She always claimed it was that photograph which captured her husband, Samuel Ferebee Williams, president of the Sweets Candy Company that made the Tootsie Roll. She first came to New York City to appear in Very Good Eddie. After her marriage she retired from show business until the death of her husband in 1931. She and her sister Dagmar, who had been cutting player piano rolls for Duo Art and Steinway, at that time started performing as a "sister act" known as the Nordstrom Sisters. They were at the Ritz in London for a year in 1939. They often performed on board ship as "society performers" in First Class and always traveling with their automobile on board. They preferred the Cunard and Norwegian Lines and were on the maiden around the world voyage of the Siagaford. They continued to perform at private parties and kept an active social calendar in New York City until Dagmar's death in 1976. Chez Nordstrom brought many artists and performers together, Al Hirschfeld captured a good likeness of the sisters on one of these occasions. Her health continued to deterioate and she spent her last months surrounded by the children of her 'adopted' nephew David McJonathan-Swarm. The youngest 'my Sam' named for her late husband.
(bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm)
(bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm)
Bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm
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