Harriet Nelson

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Harriet Nelson (also known as Harriet Hilliard) (July 18, 1909–October 2, 1994) was an American singer and actress.

She was born Peggy Lou Snyder in Des Moines, Iowa, to Roy Hilliard Snyder and Hazel Dell McNutt. By 1932, she was performing in vaudeville when she met the saxophone-playing bandleader Ozzie Nelson. Nelson hired her to sing with the band, under the name Harriet Hilliard. They married three years later. (Hilliard had a pleasant singing voice and in retrospect, she was one of the brightest female band vocalists of the era.)

Harriet Hilliard had a respectable film career as a solo performer, apart from the band. RKO Radio Pictures signed her to a one-year contract in 1936, and she appeared in three feature films, the most famous being the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Follow the Fleet. She was very much in demand during the World War II years for leading roles in escapist musicals, comedies, and mysteries.

In Ozzie's book, he wrote that Harriet was quite popular during the short time at RKO and they wanted her to continue her solo film career, but decided that it was more important for her to continue with the band and subsequent radio show.

Although Ozzie and Harriet occasionally appeared together in movies, either as a duo (in Honeymoon Lodge) or as separate characters (in Hi, Good Lookin'), they are best known for their broadcasting efforts. In 1944 the Nelsons began a domestic-comedy series for radio, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. It was highly popular and made a successful transition to television. It was one of the stalwarts of the ABC-TV schedule through 1966. The Nelsons' two sons, Ricky Nelson and David Nelson, were featured continuously on the show.

Ozzie and Harriet also appeared in the syndicated 1973 sitcom, Ozzie's Girls.

In the 1980s Harriet Nelson lived in Laguna Beach, California. She died of congestive heart failure on October 2, 1994, at the age of 85.

She is interred with her husband and younger son Ricky (who died in a plane crash) in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.