All about Mrs. Trumble

It was in season 3 when character actress Elizabeth Patterson made her first appearance as the Ricardo's' neighbor and often time babysitter Mrs. Trumble. She became a well loved, and often appearing visiter to the Ricardo's home often offering her help so Lucy could be free to work up her crazy plans with Ethel.

Mrs. Trumble remained on the show until Season 5, where the last episode she was shown in was the Bon Voyage episode where Lucy misses the boat to Europe and has to be flown over it on the helicopter (episode 13). Well, that was her last visit on the show, but did you know (of course you did!) that her first time on the show was not as Mrs, Trumble but as Mrs. Willoughby, the wife of the Greenwich, Connecticut justice of the peace who re-marries Ricky and Lucy after she finds an error on their marriage license? I guess Lucy and Ricky liked her so much they made a recurring role for her. Here's some more info on our favorite little old neighbor.

Elizabeth Patterson was born on November 22, 1875, the daughter of a Confederate soldier in Hardin County Tennessee. Even as a young girl, all Elizabeth wanted to do was have a career on the stage but her parents strongly disapproved so they sent her to France hoping she would find something to otherwise occupy her thinking. After a few times taking in some plays and the

comedie Francaise, Elizabeth was more sure than ever of what she wanted. Upon her return home she used a small inheritance to move to Chicago where she joined a theatrical troupe to learn her craft.

Her first big break came in 1913 in the form of her first Broadway role in the show Everyman. In 1926, at the age of 51, Patterson was cast in her first movie, The Boy Friend. Other movie credits include A Bill of Divorcement, Tarnished Lady, Dinner at Eight, High, Wide and Handsome, Intruder in the Dust, Little Women, My Sister Eilene, and Pal Joey with Frank Sinatra later in her career.

Elizabeth Patterson never married. She lived to the age of 90, dying from complications of pneumonia in Los Angeles. She is buried in her home town of Savannah Tennessee