‘Alice:’ A Single Mother and Waitress Changed Linda Lavin’s Life

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Recall Linda Lavin.
Broadway star, singer, theater owner. Oh yeah, and she also starred in the lead role of the CBS hit television comedy “Alice.”
Lavin will perform at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, Tenn. on Sept. 11.
That’s tonight.
The Hollywood and Broadway star comes all the way from Wilmington, N.C., where she and husband Steve Bakunas live, work as owners of a community theater and also have restored a section of Wilmington.
“I’m married to a can-do guy,” Lavin said by phone on Tuesday from Wilmington. “He’s my drummer, a builder, a designer, an actor. We found a neglected house and restored it.”
That was two years ago. Then, they went to work on restoring five more early 20th century houses in the area.
“We’ve actually restored the neighborhood,” Lavin, 70, said. “It started with our home. Now, they’re all rented. Steve, my husband, then turned an automotive garage into a theater, which we opened last year. You can drive a car right on stage.”
Productions staged in their 50-seat Red Barn Studio included David Mamet’s “Glenngary Glen Ross.” Their new season begins in October with David Lindsay-Abalre’s “Rabbit Hole.”
“We run it for profit, but it’s not making a profit yet,” Lavin said. “It gives us a lot to do.”
That Lavin can own a theater and revitalize grand old houses probably owes to her success on television’s “Alice,” which ran on CBS from 1976 through 1985.
“She meant so much to me,” Lavin said of the character. “She changed my life.”
The character of Alice Hyatt worked as a waitress at Mel’s Diner.
“She was a character who represented 80 percent of the working women in the country,” Lavin said. “She was a single mother. She wanted to be a singer, and xxxx

yet put her career on hold to raise her son.”
America embraced Alice and all of the vivid characters on the show.
“They were believable characters,” Lavin said. “They knew Mel and Flo and Alice. Hundreds of people have come up to me and thanked me for letting them laugh.”
Just as most baseball players will never make the Major Leagues, most actors never land roles on television. Now consider that Lavin not only won a role on television. She won the lead part on a show that became a hit.
“It’s one of those rare occurrences to have that longevity and the celebrity that comes from it,” Lavin said. “It was really tough for me to get into television when I was an actor in theater in New York. Everybody was looking for thin blonds in those days.”
But here’s where Lavin and her character Alice meet. As with Alice, Lavin held her dream close to her heart. She never loosened her grip on what could happen. Then what could happen did happen when she landed the role of Alice, a character who held tight to her dreams.
“Everybody has dreams, and everybody can relate to that,” Lavin said. “Never, ever give up because you never know where it’s going to come from.”
See the results of never giving up when Lavin performs tonight at the Paramount. She will unfold her life one song and story at a time.
“It’s fully autobiographical,” Lavin said. “They’ll see me telling my story and singing the songs I grew up with and singing the songs I sang on Broadway – jazz, standards, show tunes, big band songs. I’ll have a little Q and A. It will be a wonderful evening.”
Can you hear her smile? Speak with Lavin sometime, or just come out to see her, and you’ll see what happens when dreams come true.
“We have a good life,” Lavin said. “We have a good, busy, active and full life.”

[catlover79]

Thanks for sharing the article, Charles! I'm glad that Linda and her husband are enjoying a happy life. She seems to be well and it's great that she is still so active in many things at her age.