Activist and Broadway Mom Gayle Batt Dies at 79

Civil activist Gayle Batt, passed away today, December 21 in her home in New Orleans. Batt, mother of Broadway actor Bryan Batt,  lost a 32 year battle with cancer. She was 79 years old.

Gayle Batt majored in dance at Newcomb College and was an active participant in theatre throughout her life. Bryan Batt told Nola.com, "I knew I had a magical mother, and I wanted to share that with everyone. She was so gracious and so lovely but had such a great sense of humor, and she didn't know it."

Bryan Batt is a native New Orleanian actor, designer, fund-raiser, and civic activist in both New Orleans and New York. He plays Salvatore Romano on AMC's Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award-winning drama "Mad Men" and was recently featured as Spencer Cannon on the final episodes of "Ugly Betty." A Broadway veteran, Mr. Batt has also appeared on the Great White Way in productions of La Cage Aux Folles (Albin Standby), Beauty and the Beast (Lumiere) Suessical the Musical (The Cat in the Hat), Saturday Night Fever (Monty), The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph...Dreamcoat, Starlight Express and Cats. His off-Broadway credits include Jeffrey, Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act (LA Drama Logue Award) and I Love New York (1999 Drama Desk Nomination),

Mr. Batt, a civic activist, champions many causes including Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, Habitat For Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank, the Human Rights Campaign (Equality Award), the SPCA, The Preservation Resource Center, The Point Foundation, N.O. AIDS Task Force (board member, Humanitas Award), and Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre (board member and interim Artistic Director). In 2010 Bryan Batt published a memoir about his mother entitled She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother.

A funeral for Batt will take place on December 23 at 12:30 p.m. at Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church. 

Photo Credit: Jena Tesse Fox