Broadway Performer June L. Walker Rogers Passes Away at 97

June L. Walker Rogers, Broadway singer, dancer, and comedienne, who appeared on television and authored thirteen published plays and musicals, died on Monday, July 8th, at her home in Westport, CT. She was 97. 

Rogers was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and raised in Queens, New York. She started dancing at the age of five and eventually developed a nightclub act, performing on bills with many of the major stars of the 1950s and 60s including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Louis Prima, Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield, and Louis Farrakhan when he performed under the name “Calypso Louie.”

After being put in an accelerated pilot program for gifted children in the New York School system, Rogers graduated from high school at 15 and received a scholarship to Columbia University. She left college early to make her Broadway debut in the hit show Laffing Room Only starring Olsen and Johnson. After that she starred alongside Bert Lahr and Dick Van Dyke in Girls Against the Boys on Broadway. Rogers went on to star in many shows in NYC and regionally including Guys and Dolls opposite Tony Bennett, Little Me opposite Orson Bean, as well as starring in such shows as Bells Are Ringing, Mame and Oklahoma. She was a darling of early television performing on the Steve Allen Show and Jack Paar's show as well as becoming a beloved recurring performer on Jackie Gleason's variety show as well as The Ed Sullivan Show. In fact, Ed Sullivan was so taken with June that he brought her to perform at the White House for President Truman and then again for President Eisenhower. 

After starting a family, she turned to writing, penning over 13 plays including the musicals All American written with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, The Dream on Royal Street written with Alan Menken and David Rogers, and 45 Minutes from Broadway, based on the work of George M. Cohan. Her play Heidi was produced at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena to introduce cultural arts to California schools, and her book How to Make it in Showbiz: A Survival Kit became required reading for university theater departments all over the country.

In later years, she returned to the stage to perform in The Perfect Party at the Westport Country Playhouse with George Grizzard and then acted in The Perfect Wedding alongside her husband, two daughters, and sons-in-law. A longtime resident of Westport, CT., Rogers was a founding member of the Theater Artists Workshop of Westport and a member of the National League of American Pen Women. 

She was married for 50 years to the late Tony-nominated writer/actor David Rogers, who passed away in 2013. She is survived by her daughters, Dulcy Rogers Bader and Amanda Rogers, son-in-law Diedrich Bader, and four grandchildren: Lucy, Sebastian, Dashiell, and Ondine.