Another celebrity gone

I don't follow TMZ or the like, and if it weren't for the hooligan antics of some of today's young "stars", I probably wouldn't even know their names.

Of course, then there are also those stars who were a bit, maybe way, before my time, which brings us to Celeste Holm, who is today reported among those no longer living, at 95.  I post this because Ms. Holm is one celebrity whom I actually met.

In the waning days of my pre-driving youth, I was at Six Flags (the real one), with a couple of my cousins, and, uh, my mother.  Yeah, kind of like the Wayne's World walk of shame.  Anyway, standing on line for the LaSalle Riverboat Adventure, my mother keeps asking me, "The Donald, don't you think the woman ahead of us looks like Celeste Holm?"

"Who?"

"Celeste Holm, the actress."

"Um, I never heard of her."

"She was in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma on Broadway."  (I had heard of Oklahoma, both the state and the musical, having lived in Tulsa from, like '62-'67, listened to the soundtrack on reel-to-reel, and performed Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' in 7th grade music class - No, I am not about the Glee, but thanks for asking.)

"OK, still never heard of her."

"Well, I'm going to ask her." 

[My thought bubble:  Beam me up, Scotty! Where the heck is the Starship Enterprise transporter when I need it most?]

"Excuse me, but would you by chance happen to be Celeste Holm?"

You know how those lines at Six Flags are, so there I was, stuck, like Martha and the Vandellas - No where to run to, nowhere to hide.

"No, I am not by chance Celeste Holm.  I am Celeste Holm."

Actually, it was a pretty clever response, and following a mercifully brief comment like "Well, I've always admired your work" or somesuch, my mother let the dear woman go back to peacefully standing in line.

I did later watch her once or twice when she co-starred with Gerald McRaney on CBS' Promised Land series.