Mary Elizabeth Patterson (November , â€" January , ) was an American
theatre, film, and television character actress who gained popular
recognition late in her career playing the elderly neighbor Matilda
Trumbull on the television comedy series I Love Lucy.Born in in
Savannah, Tennessee, Mary Elizabeth Patterson was the child of Mildred
(née McDougal) and Edmund D. Patterson, a Confederate army veteran.
Federal census records document that her father by was a lawyer and
residing with his wife and children in the home of his father-in-law,
Garrick Archibald McDougal, a widower, who was also a lawyer and
farmer in Savannah. That same census lists Elizabeth as the second
child of the Pattersons' four offspring. She had an older sister,
Annie Belle, and two younger brothers, Edmund and Archie. With regard
to Elizabeth's education, it extended well beyond the local county
schools. She also studied at Tennessee colleges in Pulaski and
Columbia, where her participation in campus theater groups fostered a
growing passion for drama. Her parents soon sent her to Europe in
hopes of diminishing her interest in theater; yet, Elizabeth's
determination to become an actress was only reinforced during those
travels, especially in Paris, where she attended productions of the
Comédie Française.After returning from Europe, Patterson used money
from a small inheritance to move to Chicago. There she joined a
theatrical troupe and subsequently toured with repertory companies. In
, she made her Broadway debut in the play Everyman. She remained
active in New York City theatre through .
theatre, film, and television character actress who gained popular
recognition late in her career playing the elderly neighbor Matilda
Trumbull on the television comedy series I Love Lucy.Born in in
Savannah, Tennessee, Mary Elizabeth Patterson was the child of Mildred
(née McDougal) and Edmund D. Patterson, a Confederate army veteran.
Federal census records document that her father by was a lawyer and
residing with his wife and children in the home of his father-in-law,
Garrick Archibald McDougal, a widower, who was also a lawyer and
farmer in Savannah. That same census lists Elizabeth as the second
child of the Pattersons' four offspring. She had an older sister,
Annie Belle, and two younger brothers, Edmund and Archie. With regard
to Elizabeth's education, it extended well beyond the local county
schools. She also studied at Tennessee colleges in Pulaski and
Columbia, where her participation in campus theater groups fostered a
growing passion for drama. Her parents soon sent her to Europe in
hopes of diminishing her interest in theater; yet, Elizabeth's
determination to become an actress was only reinforced during those
travels, especially in Paris, where she attended productions of the
Comédie Française.After returning from Europe, Patterson used money
from a small inheritance to move to Chicago. There she joined a
theatrical troupe and subsequently toured with repertory companies. In
, she made her Broadway debut in the play Everyman. She remained
active in New York City theatre through .
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