LV cultural pioneer Roberts dies

Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2002 | 8:26 a.m.

Dancer and actress Jeanne Roberts played many roles on the stage, and in life.

In her youth she was a child star of the vaudeville stage, and as a young mother, a Pearl Harbor survivor.

But it was in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas that she made her most indelible mark: as director of the city's first recreation center -- the Wildcat Lair -- and as founder of the Las Vegas Civic Ballet.

Eugenia Camille "Jeanne" Roberts, for whom the theater at Charleston Heights Arts Center is named, died Friday in Portland, Ore. She was 89.

Services for Roberts, a Las Vegas resident of 51 years, who would have celebrated her 90th birthday Monday, will be 11 a.m. Friday at St. Anne Catholic Church, 1901 S. Maryland Parkway.

Visitation will be 2-7 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary Downtown. Interment will be in Palm Memorial Park.

Roberts' influence was great and high-profile. As a longtime dance instructor, she shaped the early careers of performers including singer/choreographer Toni Basil and actress Lily Mariye. She also served 35 years on the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

But her real pride were her young students, those who may never have danced or acted beyond her classes.

"My mother was proud that she helped so many children not only in dance and theater but also in life by instilling confidence in them," daughter Clair Rundles of Lake Oswega, Ore., said.

Sharon Rather, who as Sharon Marshall at Las Vegas High in the mid-1950s, benefited as a teen from Roberts' guidance.

"I was shy and she helped draw me out of my shell," said Rather, whose husband, Doug, was one of Roberts' dance students in the 1940s. "She was so dedicated she would drive to Overton to teach the farm children who could not come into town. She had such a big heart."

A vocal critic of what she perceived as the city's slow cultural advancements, Roberts often championed the arts by spending her own money. In 1997 she estimated that she had spent as much as $6,000 to fund the civic ballet, which she helped found in 1981.

Asked how she would like future generations to remember her contributions to Las Vegas, Roberts said simply: "I helped bring culture to this cowboy town."

In 1999, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services, Roberts was honored for her contributions with a tribute at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

"Jeanne gave thousands of hours of her time and substantial contributions of her own limited resources to city programs," said Joanne Nivison, who for 22 years was manager of the city's Cultural Affairs Division and is now retired.

"She enthusiastically supported broadly accessible cultural and recreation programs. And her pioneering efforts helped mold many of today's political and business leaders and many dancers, especially those on the Strip."

Roberts opened the Roberts School of Dancing in 1944 at Ogden Avenue and Ninth Street and ran it for 42 years.

Her students included ballerina Antonia Basil, who as Toni Basil recorded the 1980s hit "Mickey," and actress Lily Mariye, who appeared for seven years as a nurse on the top-rated NBC drama "ER."

Born Eugenia DeLucchi on Aug. 26, 1912, in San Jose, Calif., Jeanne was the oldest of three children of Big Band saxophonist Sylvio DeLucchi and artist Clara Johnson.

She started taking dance lessons at age 6 and three years later was performing on the vaudeville stage as Alma Robbins. She was considered so crucial to the act that as she started to develop, her breasts were bound to keep her in her role.

She later studied at the San Francisco Opera Ballet.

In the early 1930s Roberts had her own show on KFRC radio in San Francisco. At just 4-feet-11-inches in her prime, she had to stand on a stool to sing into the microphone. About that time, Roberts married her 6-foot-3-inch bodyguard, Nello Gentili, with whom she had two children.

They divorced while residing in Honolulu. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, a piece of the shrapnel from the USS Arizona hit Roberts' mother in the leg. A few months later Roberts moved to Las Vegas, where she performed in local plays at the old War Memorial, where Las Vegas City Hall now stands.

She married Bill Roberts and kept his last name after they divorced.

As Wildcat Lair director, Roberts started more than 30 youth activities, including Friday night dances, talent contests, fashion shows, hayrides, bowling, art, theater, crafts classes and New Year's Eve parties.

Roberts was a longtime member of both the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity. Her many honors included the 1979 Governor's Arts Decade Award and the 1991 Distinguished Woman of Southern Nevada Award.

In addition to Rundles, she is survived by another daughter, Camille Ortiz of Burbank, Calif; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Clarence DeLucchi and Louie DeLucchi.