Photo: NBC Television Uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ruth Buzzi was born in Westerly in 1936. Her father was a stone carver whose family worked in the granite business, and she grew up just over the state line in Stonington, Connecticut.
She studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California and worked in nightclubs and on television variety shows in the early 1960s.
Laugh-In
Buzzi joined Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In when it started in 1968 and stayed for its whole run. Her best-known character was Gladys Ormphby, a prim woman in a hairnet who swatted Arte Johnson’s leering old man with her purse. She won a Golden Globe for the show.
Later work
She went on to many television roles, including years of voice and puppet work on Sesame Street, and appeared in films and stage shows. She often spoke fondly of her Rhode Island and Connecticut roots and returned for local events.
Buzzi died in 2025. Her career is a point of pride in Westerly, where her family’s granite work is part of the town’s history.
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