AMES, Iowa - Noted Midwestern raconteur Omer L. Baumgartner passed away at this home in Ames, Iowa on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011. He was 90 years old. Mr. Baumgartner had lived a long and passionate life dedicated to rambunctious performances and dairy products.

Born on a dairy farm in Walnut, Ill., Baumgartner was prodigious with the movement of manure from an early age, and exercising these and other talents, earned recognition for his National 4-H Grand Champion Dairy Heifer, Clementine's Ramona, in 1930 at the age of 10. After this debut, and as the Depression raged, Baumgartner cut his teeth in the livestock industry while attending hundreds of county and state fairs, showing and selling cattle, frying oysters, skinning rabbits, and drinking whiskey. While still a freshman at the University of Illinois, he successfully quelled the great dairy upraising of 1938, averting a desperate ice cream shortage in Chicago, and was immediately recruited, without finishing college, by the state's Guernsey Breeders Association as a field agent.
Despite never learning to cook anything other than fried oysters, Baumgartner attained the rank of captain during World War II for running mess halls feeding over 5,000 in Tennessee and Alabama for the Army Air Corps. He was wildly popular with the troops for his mess hours bongo drum performances accompanied by dancing girls. Baumgartner notably worked for L.S. Heath and Company, running the dairy division and inventing Heath Bar ice cream in 1951. He also co-ran Wilkinson's Office Supplies with his wife Jattie Wilkinson Baumgartner, serving one-third of the state of Illinois and parts of Iowa. Baumgartner disliked vegetables his whole life. Despite consuming more than 2,000 pounds of butter, he never suffered from any kind of heart disease. His last meal was ice cream.
Baumgartner is survived by his daughters, Donna Prizgintas in Ames, Iowa, and Mary Baumgartner Levner in Portsmith, Va.; and grandchildren Diana Prizgintas in New Zealand, Jack Levner in New York, Arion Thiboumery in Minnesota, and Stephanie Levner in New York; and great-grandchildren Max Prizgintas and Ada Levner.
Memorials may be directed to: Red Oak United Methodist Church, Walnut, Ill.
Online condolences may be sent to www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com. Published in The Register-Mail on February 12, 2011

Frank Whitten, the New Zealand actor famous for playing Grandpa Ted West on the television series Outrageous Fortune, has died at the age of 68.

A statement from South Pacific Pictures in Auckland last night said Whitten, who has been a familiar face on New Zealand and Australian television and cinema screens, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday morning.

"All of us are deeply saddened to hear of Frank Whitten's passing," said John Barnett, the company's chief executive.

Barnett acknowledged Whitten's three decades performing on various platforms on TV ONE's Breakfast this morning.

"Frank had created a character that, I think, was a favourite in hundreds of thousands of households, but he had a very long and distinguished career as an actor," he said.

When asked if he represented a person New Zealanders could relate to, Barnett pointed out two characteristics: "His irreverent take on the world and his ability to express a view that many people feel but often don't say.

"He wasn't like Ted West, but he certainly had that sense of humour and he certainly had a healthy disregard for, shall we say, some structures. And he was a lot of fun," he said.

Whitten won a best supporting actor award at the Air New Zealand Screen Awards in 2007 for his performance in Outrageous Fortune.

Speaking on behalf of her Outrageous Fortune cast mates, Whitten's co-star and friend Robyn Malcolm said: "We feel deeply for Frank's family and our thoughts, love and grief are with them.

"We were Frank's screen family for only a few years but in that time we got to know him and adore him as a wicked, irreverent man of lethal wit, a heart of gold and one of the best actors we'll ever work with. We all respected him enormously but in good 'Outrageous' spirit we treated him with the disrespect and irreverence he loved.

"Like his screen character he never said a lot but when he did it mattered. He'll hate that we are saying lovely things about him, but tough Frank - you deserve it."

Whitten's family will hold a small private funeral service this week.

L.A. Weekly's 2005 Queen of the Angels, Betty Garrett, died Saturday morning of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center following a brief illness. She was surrounded by her family at the time of her death. She was 91.


A revered figure in the Los Angeles theater community, she was the recipient of nearly every artistic award the city could bestow, including Career Achievement Awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle and the Ovation Awards, and the Queen of the Angels Award from L.A. Weekly. She was a founding member of the 49-year-old Theatre West, and was moderator of its Musical Comedy workshop until the time of her death. She frequently appeared on the Theatre West stage. Her final shows there included "Nunsense," the Los Angeles premiere of Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," and a revue, "Betty Garrett, Closet Songwriter."


A Broadway star, she appeared in thirteen Broadway shows, among them "Call Me Mister," "Bells Are Ringing," "The Supporting Cast," the revival of "Follies," and the 1963 production of "Spoon River Anthology" originally developed at Theatre West.



She appeared in a dozen films, including classic Hollywood musicals including "Words and Music," "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "Neptune's Daughter," "On The Town," "Hit Parade of 1951," and "My Sister Eileen."


She was also a popular television performer, best known for her work on "All in the Family," for which she received a Golden Globe ®, and "Laverne and Shirley." She received an Emmy ® nomination in 2003 for a guest appearance on "Becker." Her final TV appearance was on "Grey's Anatomy" in 2006.


Betty Garrett received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.


A longtime social activist, in her later years she was active in supporting activities of charities assisting those living with HIV/AIDS.


Widowed in 1975 from the late actor Larry Parks, she is survived by her son , actor Andrew Parks and his wife Katy Melody; her son, composer Garrett Parks and his wife, actor Karen Culliver Parks; and a granddaughter, Madison Claire Parks.


A memorial will be planned for a later date. Donations in Ms. Garrett's memory can be made to Theatre West, the Actors' Fund, or S.T.A.G.E.