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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Donna Douglas, ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ Elly May, dies

Donna Douglas, who starred in the television series “The Beverly Hillbillies,” holds a publicity picture of herself from the show. (Associated Press)
Claire Noland Los Angeles Times

Donna Douglas, a Louisiana beauty queen turned actress who tapped into her poor Southern roots for the role of Elly May Clampett in the long-running TV sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” has died. Her age was variously reported as 81 or 82.

Douglas died of pancreatic cancer Thursday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The show – about the down-home Clampetts who strike it rich with an Ozarks oil well and move to California – became an immediate hit when it began airing on CBS in 1962. It starred Buddy Ebsen as patriarch Jed, Irene Ryan as Granny, Max Baer Jr. as Jethro and Douglas as Elly May, a buxom tomboy character who had curly blond pigtails, wore gingham and blue jeans and loved her “critters.”

It was far from a stretch for Douglas, who was born “way out in the country, outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana,” she told the Toronto Star in 1988. “I really am a country girl. … My folks were real poor.”

After winning beauty contests in her home state, Douglas headed to New York City in the mid-1950s in search of modeling jobs and wound up on television as a billboard girl on “The Steve Allen Show.” She took acting lessons and landed a few parts in other TV series before writer and producer Paul Henning asked her if she thought she’d be right for his new show, “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

“I just looked at him and grinned,” Douglas told Associated Press Hollywood reporter Bob Thomas in 1965. “Could I handle Elly May? Why, it was just like my own life.”

She had to retrieve the Southern accent she had tried to lose, and she had no trouble with the dogs, skunks, mountain lion, chimpanzee and other animals Elly May adored on the series.

“I loved doing Elly May,” the actress would recall. “And, of course, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ was a story about the American dream. No matter who tried to slicker us or take advantage of us, we always came out on top. We were never the losers. We set a good example.”

After “The Beverly Hillbillies” ended in 1971, Douglas had a few other acting jobs and worked in real estate. Eventually she moved back to Louisiana and in her later years sang gospel music and gave inspirational speeches to church congregations and Christian organizations.