Shannon Tavarez, Nala in 'Lion King', Dies at 11
By BRUCE WEBER NOV. 3, 2010
Shannon Tavarez, who won a featured role on Broadway in "The Lion King" at an open audition for child actors, and who spent seven months performing in the show before receiving a diagnosis of leukemia in April, died on Monday. She was 11.
Her death was reported in a statement from Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park, where she died.
Shannon was in the sixth grade at P.S. 176 in Queens. Her disease, acute myelogenous leukemia, is a rapidly advancing cancer, common among adults but rare in children, that develops in the bone marrow and inhibits the production of healthy blood cells.
Her plight gained attention earlier this year when she was unable to find a suitable bone marrow donor and several entertainers, including Alicia Keys, Rihanna and 50 Cent, appealed to their fans to register as potential donors.
In August she had an umbilical-cord blood transplant, a procedure in which stem cells harvested from a donated umbilical cord are injected into the patient to encourage the formation of a new, healthy blood system.
"It has a good survival rate and it's the next best thing" to a marrow transplant, said Katharina Harf, a co-founder and executive vice president of DKMS Americas, a bone marrow donor center.
Minorities are vastly underrepresented in the bone marrow donor registry, which makes suitable donors for minority patients difficult to locate. In addition, blacks and Hispanics have many more different tissue types than whites, Ms. Harf said, which makes the process of matching donor to patient more complex, especially for patients of mixed race or ethnicity. Shannon's father is Hispanic and her mother, Odiney Brown, is black.
Shannon Skye Tavarez was born on Jan. 20, 1999. In "The Lion King" she played young Nala, a lion cub who was the best friend of Simba, the show's lead character. She was chosen for the part after auditioning along with hundreds of other children at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in December 2008 and made her debut in September 2009.
"She was fearless, as a performer and as a young woman," Ron Vodicka, the production stage manager for "The Lion King," said in an interview on Tuesday. "She was never intimidated and she was constantly happy. After she was diagnosed, all she talked about was when she could come back."∼Shannon Tavarez - the little girl from Queens with a big voice who fought a courageous battle against leukemia - has died, it was reported yesterday.
The pretty, 11-year-old soprano, who played Young Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway, succumbed to the disease after getting an umbilical cord transplant in late August that doctors hoped wouldsave her life, according to BroadwayWorld.com.
Her plight had prompted more than 8,000 people from around the country to sign up as bone-marrow donors in a campaign in her name.
But no marrow match could be found, so she underwent the umbilical cord transplant as an alternate treatment.
Rapper 50 Cent played a big part in the outpouring of offers of help to the Bellerose schoolgirl with a megawatt smile, making a YouTube video about getting his cheek swabbed to become a marrow donor.
In less than a week, more than 3,600 people had signed up as donors online through donor center DKMS Americas.
Shannon had undergone extensive chemotherapy since she learned she had leukemia last spring. Recently, she had been struggling to stabilize in an intensive care unit, BroadwayWorld.com said.
Shannon got the break of her young life last year, nailing the role of Young Nala after her first open audition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
From the age of 3, she attended the Harlem School of the Arts for vocals and piano, where her coach encouraged her to audition.
She made her Broadway debut in September 2009 and played four of eight shows a week until April.
Neither Shannon's mom, Odney Brown, nor a family spokesman could be reached for comment last night.
By BRUCE WEBER NOV. 3, 2010
Shannon Tavarez, who won a featured role on Broadway in "The Lion King" at an open audition for child actors, and who spent seven months performing in the show before receiving a diagnosis of leukemia in April, died on Monday. She was 11.
Her death was reported in a statement from Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park, where she died.
Shannon was in the sixth grade at P.S. 176 in Queens. Her disease, acute myelogenous leukemia, is a rapidly advancing cancer, common among adults but rare in children, that develops in the bone marrow and inhibits the production of healthy blood cells.
Her plight gained attention earlier this year when she was unable to find a suitable bone marrow donor and several entertainers, including Alicia Keys, Rihanna and 50 Cent, appealed to their fans to register as potential donors.
In August she had an umbilical-cord blood transplant, a procedure in which stem cells harvested from a donated umbilical cord are injected into the patient to encourage the formation of a new, healthy blood system.
"It has a good survival rate and it's the next best thing" to a marrow transplant, said Katharina Harf, a co-founder and executive vice president of DKMS Americas, a bone marrow donor center.
Minorities are vastly underrepresented in the bone marrow donor registry, which makes suitable donors for minority patients difficult to locate. In addition, blacks and Hispanics have many more different tissue types than whites, Ms. Harf said, which makes the process of matching donor to patient more complex, especially for patients of mixed race or ethnicity. Shannon's father is Hispanic and her mother, Odiney Brown, is black.
Shannon Skye Tavarez was born on Jan. 20, 1999. In "The Lion King" she played young Nala, a lion cub who was the best friend of Simba, the show's lead character. She was chosen for the part after auditioning along with hundreds of other children at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in December 2008 and made her debut in September 2009.
"She was fearless, as a performer and as a young woman," Ron Vodicka, the production stage manager for "The Lion King," said in an interview on Tuesday. "She was never intimidated and she was constantly happy. After she was diagnosed, all she talked about was when she could come back."∼Shannon Tavarez - the little girl from Queens with a big voice who fought a courageous battle against leukemia - has died, it was reported yesterday.
The pretty, 11-year-old soprano, who played Young Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway, succumbed to the disease after getting an umbilical cord transplant in late August that doctors hoped wouldsave her life, according to BroadwayWorld.com.
Her plight had prompted more than 8,000 people from around the country to sign up as bone-marrow donors in a campaign in her name.
But no marrow match could be found, so she underwent the umbilical cord transplant as an alternate treatment.
Rapper 50 Cent played a big part in the outpouring of offers of help to the Bellerose schoolgirl with a megawatt smile, making a YouTube video about getting his cheek swabbed to become a marrow donor.
In less than a week, more than 3,600 people had signed up as donors online through donor center DKMS Americas.
Shannon had undergone extensive chemotherapy since she learned she had leukemia last spring. Recently, she had been struggling to stabilize in an intensive care unit, BroadwayWorld.com said.
Shannon got the break of her young life last year, nailing the role of Young Nala after her first open audition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
From the age of 3, she attended the Harlem School of the Arts for vocals and piano, where her coach encouraged her to audition.
She made her Broadway debut in September 2009 and played four of eight shows a week until April.
Neither Shannon's mom, Odney Brown, nor a family spokesman could be reached for comment last night.
Shannon Tavarez, Nala in 'Lion King', Dies at 11
By BRUCE WEBER NOV. 3, 2010
Shannon Tavarez, who won a featured role on Broadway in "The Lion King" at an open audition for child actors, and who spent seven months performing in the show before receiving a diagnosis of leukemia in April, died on Monday. She was 11.
Her death was reported in a statement from Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park, where she died.
Shannon was in the sixth grade at P.S. 176 in Queens. Her disease, acute myelogenous leukemia, is a rapidly advancing cancer, common among adults but rare in children, that develops in the bone marrow and inhibits the production of healthy blood cells.
Her plight gained attention earlier this year when she was unable to find a suitable bone marrow donor and several entertainers, including Alicia Keys, Rihanna and 50 Cent, appealed to their fans to register as potential donors.
In August she had an umbilical-cord blood transplant, a procedure in which stem cells harvested from a donated umbilical cord are injected into the patient to encourage the formation of a new, healthy blood system.
"It has a good survival rate and it's the next best thing" to a marrow transplant, said Katharina Harf, a co-founder and executive vice president of DKMS Americas, a bone marrow donor center.
Minorities are vastly underrepresented in the bone marrow donor registry, which makes suitable donors for minority patients difficult to locate. In addition, blacks and Hispanics have many more different tissue types than whites, Ms. Harf said, which makes the process of matching donor to patient more complex, especially for patients of mixed race or ethnicity. Shannon's father is Hispanic and her mother, Odiney Brown, is black.
Shannon Skye Tavarez was born on Jan. 20, 1999. In "The Lion King" she played young Nala, a lion cub who was the best friend of Simba, the show's lead character. She was chosen for the part after auditioning along with hundreds of other children at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in December 2008 and made her debut in September 2009.
"She was fearless, as a performer and as a young woman," Ron Vodicka, the production stage manager for "The Lion King," said in an interview on Tuesday. "She was never intimidated and she was constantly happy. After she was diagnosed, all she talked about was when she could come back."∼Shannon Tavarez - the little girl from Queens with a big voice who fought a courageous battle against leukemia - has died, it was reported yesterday.
The pretty, 11-year-old soprano, who played Young Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway, succumbed to the disease after getting an umbilical cord transplant in late August that doctors hoped wouldsave her life, according to BroadwayWorld.com.
Her plight had prompted more than 8,000 people from around the country to sign up as bone-marrow donors in a campaign in her name.
But no marrow match could be found, so she underwent the umbilical cord transplant as an alternate treatment.
Rapper 50 Cent played a big part in the outpouring of offers of help to the Bellerose schoolgirl with a megawatt smile, making a YouTube video about getting his cheek swabbed to become a marrow donor.
In less than a week, more than 3,600 people had signed up as donors online through donor center DKMS Americas.
Shannon had undergone extensive chemotherapy since she learned she had leukemia last spring. Recently, she had been struggling to stabilize in an intensive care unit, BroadwayWorld.com said.
Shannon got the break of her young life last year, nailing the role of Young Nala after her first open audition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
From the age of 3, she attended the Harlem School of the Arts for vocals and piano, where her coach encouraged her to audition.
She made her Broadway debut in September 2009 and played four of eight shows a week until April.
Neither Shannon's mom, Odney Brown, nor a family spokesman could be reached for comment last night.
By BRUCE WEBER NOV. 3, 2010
Shannon Tavarez, who won a featured role on Broadway in "The Lion King" at an open audition for child actors, and who spent seven months performing in the show before receiving a diagnosis of leukemia in April, died on Monday. She was 11.
Her death was reported in a statement from Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park, where she died.
Shannon was in the sixth grade at P.S. 176 in Queens. Her disease, acute myelogenous leukemia, is a rapidly advancing cancer, common among adults but rare in children, that develops in the bone marrow and inhibits the production of healthy blood cells.
Her plight gained attention earlier this year when she was unable to find a suitable bone marrow donor and several entertainers, including Alicia Keys, Rihanna and 50 Cent, appealed to their fans to register as potential donors.
In August she had an umbilical-cord blood transplant, a procedure in which stem cells harvested from a donated umbilical cord are injected into the patient to encourage the formation of a new, healthy blood system.
"It has a good survival rate and it's the next best thing" to a marrow transplant, said Katharina Harf, a co-founder and executive vice president of DKMS Americas, a bone marrow donor center.
Minorities are vastly underrepresented in the bone marrow donor registry, which makes suitable donors for minority patients difficult to locate. In addition, blacks and Hispanics have many more different tissue types than whites, Ms. Harf said, which makes the process of matching donor to patient more complex, especially for patients of mixed race or ethnicity. Shannon's father is Hispanic and her mother, Odiney Brown, is black.
Shannon Skye Tavarez was born on Jan. 20, 1999. In "The Lion King" she played young Nala, a lion cub who was the best friend of Simba, the show's lead character. She was chosen for the part after auditioning along with hundreds of other children at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in December 2008 and made her debut in September 2009.
"She was fearless, as a performer and as a young woman," Ron Vodicka, the production stage manager for "The Lion King," said in an interview on Tuesday. "She was never intimidated and she was constantly happy. After she was diagnosed, all she talked about was when she could come back."∼Shannon Tavarez - the little girl from Queens with a big voice who fought a courageous battle against leukemia - has died, it was reported yesterday.
The pretty, 11-year-old soprano, who played Young Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway, succumbed to the disease after getting an umbilical cord transplant in late August that doctors hoped wouldsave her life, according to BroadwayWorld.com.
Her plight had prompted more than 8,000 people from around the country to sign up as bone-marrow donors in a campaign in her name.
But no marrow match could be found, so she underwent the umbilical cord transplant as an alternate treatment.
Rapper 50 Cent played a big part in the outpouring of offers of help to the Bellerose schoolgirl with a megawatt smile, making a YouTube video about getting his cheek swabbed to become a marrow donor.
In less than a week, more than 3,600 people had signed up as donors online through donor center DKMS Americas.
Shannon had undergone extensive chemotherapy since she learned she had leukemia last spring. Recently, she had been struggling to stabilize in an intensive care unit, BroadwayWorld.com said.
Shannon got the break of her young life last year, nailing the role of Young Nala after her first open audition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
From the age of 3, she attended the Harlem School of the Arts for vocals and piano, where her coach encouraged her to audition.
She made her Broadway debut in September 2009 and played four of eight shows a week until April.
Neither Shannon's mom, Odney Brown, nor a family spokesman could be reached for comment last night.
Inscription
ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS
SHANNON SKYE TAVAREZ
JANUARY 20, 1999 - NOVEMBER 1, 2010
Gravesite Details
Bronze Memorial
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
