Ethel Owen (Born Ethel Waite, March , â€" February , ) was an
American actress with a lengthy career on stage as well as radio and
television. In her early sixties, during the mid-s, she had a
memorable recurring TV role on The Honeymooners, playing Mrs. Gibson,
Ralph Kramden's sharp-tongued, interfering mother-in-law.Born in
Chicago, Owen started performing around the time of her fourteenth
birthday in . Although she is credited with appearances on a number of
vaudeville circuits, her primary venue was the legitimate stage,
mostly as a member of regional touring theatre groups. Following
marriage, in her early twenties, to a Wisconsin veterinarian, Raymond
G. Owens(-) on June , , she had three daughters, and while the eldest,
Mary, would move to Texas, upon deciding on a career as a social
worker in Fort Worth, the younger girls, Virginia and Armilda Jane,
followed their mother into show business as actresses.While raising a
family, Ethel Waite continued to maintain her career and adopted Ethel
Owen, the shortened version of her married surname, as a new stage
name. She continued to perform in summer stock, and Armilda Jane, born
in Milwaukee in , began as a child actress in her mother's plays. Well
known in summer stock by her tenth birthday, she was even offered a
film contract at a time when the success of Shirley Temple's first
starring films in caused studios to conduct searches for other
talented performing youngsters, but her mother decided against the
move. In succeeding years, she became a teenage performer in musical
comedy and, changing her stage name to Pamela Britton, had co-starring
roles on Broadway and in a few films, including two classics, the
musical Anchors Aweigh, playing Frank Sinatra's Brooklyn-accented
girlfriend, and the noir, D.O.A., eventually moving to TV sitcoms as
the scatterbrained title character in 's Blondie and, from to , as
the inquisitive landlady, Mrs. Brown, in My Favorite Martian.
American actress with a lengthy career on stage as well as radio and
television. In her early sixties, during the mid-s, she had a
memorable recurring TV role on The Honeymooners, playing Mrs. Gibson,
Ralph Kramden's sharp-tongued, interfering mother-in-law.Born in
Chicago, Owen started performing around the time of her fourteenth
birthday in . Although she is credited with appearances on a number of
vaudeville circuits, her primary venue was the legitimate stage,
mostly as a member of regional touring theatre groups. Following
marriage, in her early twenties, to a Wisconsin veterinarian, Raymond
G. Owens(-) on June , , she had three daughters, and while the eldest,
Mary, would move to Texas, upon deciding on a career as a social
worker in Fort Worth, the younger girls, Virginia and Armilda Jane,
followed their mother into show business as actresses.While raising a
family, Ethel Waite continued to maintain her career and adopted Ethel
Owen, the shortened version of her married surname, as a new stage
name. She continued to perform in summer stock, and Armilda Jane, born
in Milwaukee in , began as a child actress in her mother's plays. Well
known in summer stock by her tenth birthday, she was even offered a
film contract at a time when the success of Shirley Temple's first
starring films in caused studios to conduct searches for other
talented performing youngsters, but her mother decided against the
move. In succeeding years, she became a teenage performer in musical
comedy and, changing her stage name to Pamela Britton, had co-starring
roles on Broadway and in a few films, including two classics, the
musical Anchors Aweigh, playing Frank Sinatra's Brooklyn-accented
girlfriend, and the noir, D.O.A., eventually moving to TV sitcoms as
the scatterbrained title character in 's Blondie and, from to , as
the inquisitive landlady, Mrs. Brown, in My Favorite Martian.
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