Dorothy Fay (born Dorothy Alice Fay Southworth,[1] April 4, 1915 – November 5, 2003) was an American actress mainly known for her appearances in Western movies.
Fay married singer/actor Tex Ritter on June 14, 1941; the marriage ended with his death on January 2, 1974. They had two sons, Thomas and John. Among her grandchildren are actors Jason Ritter and Tyler Ritter.[citation needed]
Fay made several more movies after she and Ritter married, but then retired from show business in late 1941. In 1965, she and Ritter moved to Nashville, because of his singing and recording career. For a time, she was an official greeter at the Grand Ole Opry. She returned to Southern California in 1981. Fay turned down several offers to return to movie work, including an opportunity to appear on the ABC television series The Love Boat playing the mother of real-life son, John. But she did appear with him in the TV special "Superstars and their Moms" in 1987. She was also a frequent guest at western movie conventions.
In 1987, Fay suffered a stroke that impacted her speech. She moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, in 1989. In August 2001, she was mistakenly reported to have died by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London. The error happened when an employee at the retirement home found that Fay was not in her room, and after inquiring about her absence, was told that Fay had "gone", by which it was meant that she had left her room and was in another wing of the building. However, the employee mistook this as meaning she had died, and telephoned a friend — who happened to work at the Telegraph's obituaries desk — with the supposed "news". Fay and her family found the blunder amusing and took it in good sport.[5]
