Overview
- Childhelp confirmed her death Friday and praised her decades of child-advocacy leadership.
- She co-founded the nonprofit with Sara O’Meara in 1959 after encountering orphaned children during a USO goodwill tour in Japan.
- As a longtime leader, she helped build national chapters and expand programs including the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline and Speak Up Be Safe, which the group says have reached more than 14 million children and families.
- Before retiring from show business in 1969, she was known for I Was a Teenage Werewolf and starred in Dragstrip Riot, High School Hellcats and other 1950s titles.
- After husband Don Fedderson’s death in 1994, she ran Don Fedderson Productions for decades, while public tributes Friday from Sara O’Meara, Kathie Lee Gifford and John Stamos honored her legacy.