William R. Harris

William R. (Bill) Harris, who was a principal dancer in the late 1940s with the Broadway companies of the classic musicals Kiss Me Kate, Brigadoon, Annie Get Your Gun, and others, died in his home in Westport, July 9. He was 77.

He was the father of Bill Harris, Jr, of Newtown.

A native of Bloomington, Ind., Mr Harris studied theatre and dance at Catholic University in Washington, DC, while pursuing a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a fingerprint identification expert before the United States entered World War II. Rejecting his FBI deferment, he volunteered for the US Navy and spent the war in the Pacific Theater as a radioman aboard the battleship USS Mississippi, BB 41. He was a combat veteran of the bombardment of Bloody Nose Ridge, Pelelieu Island; the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last great battleship versus battleship fleet engagement; Leyte Gulf in the Philippines; and Okinawa. He was injured in a Kamikaze attack in 1944 when all around him were killed but declined the Purple Heart due to what he deemed to be the relativly minor nature of his wounds.

Following the war, he pursued his love of dance and the theatre, studying in New York and Los Angeles with Eugene Loring Studio, and got his first big break when he joined the touring road company of Brigadoon in Los Angeles. He accompanied the show back to Broadway and launched his career from there.

Mr Harris married the former Bobra Suiter, a singer and actress in the Brigadoon company, in 1950. He left the theatre and became an executive with Famous Artists Schools in Westport in the late 1950s. Toward the end of his business career he joined Westport Bank and Trust and became operations officer in 1990. He retired from that position in 1993.

Born on December 31, 1922, to Blanche and Loren Harris, he lost his mother to a mastoid infection when he was still an infant and was raised by his aunt and uncle. He is survived by his wife, Bobra; two other sons, Scott of Arlington, Va., and Craig of Niwot, Colo.; and five grandchildren.

 In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Assumption Church, 98 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT 06880.

The Newtown Bee         July 14, 2000