Lima native and Bluffton University alumnus Phyllis Diller, the veteran TV comedian who made an art of self-deprecation, has died, according to The Associated Press. She was 95.
She married Sherwood Diller, a Bluffton High School graduate, and later they were divorced. She referred to Sherwood as "Fang" in her routinees. Sherwood grew up in the large home on the corner of Main and Poplar.
She had developed several friendships with persons from Bluffton, the most notable were the late Dr. and Mrs. B.W. Travis. Dr. Travis appeared on the television program "This is Your Life," when it had a tribute to Diller.
Diller was a member of the Bluffton College class of 1941.
She came to Bluffton in the 1938-39 school year. She was enrolled in 1939-40 and then left in April 1940. She would have graduated with the class of 1941.
As a student she was a member of the Witmarsum student newspaper and she wrote a column called “Around the Horn with Phyllis Driver.”
On her May 1939 application for student employment, she was applying to be a “dish drier.” On the application, she changed it to “dish DRIVER” a play on her maiden name, DRIVER.
One of the questions says… “State your training and experience that help to qualify you for the position for which you apply?”… her response, “I am an expert dish drier (glasses and sliver) – in fact I am an authority on the subject - may write a treatise on its method and system.” An example of her comic talent.
In 1993, she was the Commencement speaker at Bluffton and received a Doctor of Humane Letters. On May 30, 1993, she received a resolution from Governor George Voinovich for her humanitarian and civic spirit.
The document from the resolution also lists the following:
• Honorary Mayor of Brentwood California
• Degree in Humane Letters from the National Christian University
• Doctorate from Kent State
• Golden Apple from the Hollywood Women’s Press Club
• The USO Liberty Bell Award
• AMC Cancer Institute Humanitarian Award – 1981
• Inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame
Also in 1993, she held a benefit concert at the Civic Center in Lima as a fundraiser event for Yoder Recital Hall.
“Phyllis Driver was very talented and had a vivacious personality. During dinner at Ropp Hall, she would comply with our request to entertain us by quoting Shakespeare and playing the piano,” said Isabelle West of Bluffton, who attend college with Diller.
Diller's career began exactly 50 years ago on radio, but a segue to TV shortly thereafter yielded some classics, notably her frequent appearances on "Laugh-In" and a long association with Bob Hope that yielded nearly two dozen TV specials and numerous visits to Vietnam as part of his USO tour.
Diller also had a brief Broadway run in "Hello, Dolly!" in 1969. There was a famed big-screen role, as "Texas" Guinan in 1961's "Splendor in the Grass."
Diller was a frequent guest of TV variety shows and starred in her own sitcom, "The Pruitts of Southampton," which aired on ABC for one season (1966-67). She also made dozens of cameos on shows like "Love, American Style," "Blossom," "7th Heaven" and "The Bold and the Beautiful." She also voiced characters in the 1998 film "A Bug's Life" and in the TV series "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" and "Family Guy," as Thelma, Peter Griffin's mother.
