Jeanette Eymann

Jeanette Eymann was born on December 5,1919 in Pontiac, Illinois, USA. She was the daughter of of Joseph and Nellie Mae Weber Eymann. Joseph worked in 1920 as a farm elevator manager, and in the 1940's her parents managed the Imperial Hotel in Pontiac, Illinois. Joseph was born November 27, 1887 and died October 24, 1955, Nellie Mae was born February 23, 1891 and died December 23, 1994. Jeanette's first husband, Hollis F. Bridwell, was a musician in the Stan Kenton Band. Hollis was born on September 1, 1916 and died on March 14, 2001. Her second husband, Kenneth E. Barnes, was an engineer in the aircraft industry. He was born on April 30, 1914 and died on January 26, 1990. While visiting a brother living in Los Angeles in the summer of 1946 Jeanette decided to leave the teaching profession in Illinois after three years teaching high school speech and art and answered a blind newspaper ad. She interviewed for an ad agency which led to her subsequent hiring as the secretary to Hilliard Marks, producer of the Jack Benny Show on radio. Over the years she became a script writer for both the Benny radio and television programs. When Mary Livingstone, Benny's wife and sister of Hilliard Marks, developed a phobia about reading her radio show lines before a live studio audience, Jeanette read them for her. After the reading before the live audience technicians dubbed in Mary's voice which she had taped in private for the Sunday evening CBS broadcasts. The radio audience never heard Jeanette's voice. Later when the radio show ceased and the Jack Benny Program became a weekly televised comedy show, Jeanette occasionally was called upon for small parts, i.e., unseen voice on a telephone call, receptionist, doctor's assistant, etc. She became a member of the Screen Actors Guild and is credited with nineteen appearances. When the programs with her appearing became summer reruns she received a $22 residual for each program rebroadcast. Jeanette Eymann Barnes passed away in 2013 after living for many years in Van Nuys, California, USA,