Burl Ives, 85, Slips Into Coma

Actor-balladeer Burl Ives slipped into a coma Wednesday and was not expected to regain consciousness, his longtime agent said.

Ives’ doctors “don’t think he’ll make it through the night,” said Marjorie Schicktanz Ashley, his agent for 20 years.

Ives, 85, was at home - “that’s the way he wanted it,” she said.

His wife, Dorothy, and her three adult children were with him, Ashley said. Ives’ adopted son, Alex, was on the East Coast.

Doctors discovered Ives suffered from mouth cancer last summer, when he was hospitalized for back surgery, and he has “had a number of little surgeries in the last few months,” Ashley said.