How did Lucille Ball die?
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Actress Lucille Ball died April 26, 1989 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. At the time of her death, she was in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center recovering from emergency surgery performed just six days earlier because of a dissecting aortic aneurysm near her heart. Ball was at increased risk, as she had been a heavy smoker for decades.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm
10959769#2
Formerly, each May, the museum celebrated 'Lucy-Desi Days' which featured several events included panel discussions with those closest to Lucy and Desi. In the spring of 1989, Lucille Ball was meant to attend the commencement ceremony at Jamestown Community College and receive an honorary degree from the institution, and during the same weekend she planned to attend the Lucille Ball Festival of New Comedy, which she had developed in cooperation with the Arts Council of Jamestown. Unfortunately she died shortly before the scheduled event. In 1991, The Comedy Center established the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, which is now held every August. Past festivals have featured Ray Romano, Ellen DeGeneres, Lewis Black, Billy Gardell, Jay Leno, Bill Engvall, Joan Rivers, Paula Poundstone, Kathleen Madigan, Tammy Pescatelli, and many more.
Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Center
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In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including "" and "". Ball did not back away from acting completely. She appeared in film and television roles for the rest of her career until her death in April 1989 from an abdominal aortic dissection at the age of 77.
Lucille Ball
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In February, 1915, when Lucille was three years old, her 27-year-old father died of typhoid fever. Henry Ball was a lineman for Bell Telephone Company and was frequently transferred. The family had moved from Jamestown to Anaconda, Montana, and later to Trenton, New Jersey. At the time of Henry's death, DeDe Ball was pregnant with her second child, Frederick. Ball recalled little from the day her father died, but remembered a bird getting trapped in the house. From that day forward, she suffered from ornithophobia.
Lucille Ball
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In 1966, Ball became a friend and mentor to Carol Burnett. She guested on Burnett's highly successful CBS-TV special "Carol + 2" and the younger performer reciprocated by appearing on "The Lucy Show". It was rumored that Ball offered Burnett a chance to star on her own sitcom, but in truth Burnett was offered (and declined) "Here's Agnes" by CBS executives. She instead chose to create her own variety show due to a stipulation that was on an existing contract she had with CBS. The two women remained close friends until Ball's death in 1989. Ball sent flowers every year on Burnett's birthday. When Burnett awoke on the day of her 56th birthday in 1989, she discovered via the morning news that Lucille Ball had died. Later that afternoon, flowers arrived at Burnett's house with a note reading, "Happy Birthday, Kid. Love, Lucy."
Lucille Ball
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In 1925, Ball, then only 14, started dating Johnny DeVita, a 21-year-old local hoodlum. DeDe was unhappy with the relationship, but unable to influence her daughter to end it. She expected the romance to burn out after a few weeks, but that did not happen. After about a year, DeDe tried to separate them by exploiting Lucille's desire to be in show business. Despite the family's meager finances, she arranged for Lucille to attend the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts, in New York City, where Bette Davis was a fellow student. Ball later said about that time in her life, "All I learned in drama school was how to be frightened." Ball's instructors felt she would not be successful in the entertainment business, and were not afraid to say this to her face.
Lucille Ball
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Born at 69 Stewart Avenue, Jamestown, New York, Lucille Désirée Ball was the daughter of Henry Durrell Ball (1887–1915) and Désirée "DeDe" Evelyn Ball (née Hunt; 1892–1977). Her family lived in Wyandotte, Michigan, for a time. She sometimes later claimed that she had been born in Butte, Montana, where her grandparents had lived. A number of magazines reported inaccurately that she had decided that Montana was a more romantic place to be born than New York and repeated a fantasy of a "western childhood". However her father had moved the family to Anaconda for his work, where they lived briefly, among other places.
Lucille Ball
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In May 1988, Ball was hospitalized after suffering a mild heart attack. Her last public appearance, just one month before her death, was at the 1989 Academy Awards telecast in which she and fellow presenter Bob Hope were given a standing ovation.
Lucille Ball
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Fred Ball died of natural causes in Cottonwood, Arizona, on February 5, 2007, at the age of 91. He was cremated and buried in the Hunt family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York, where his parents, Henry and Desirée (Hunt) Ball, his sister, Lucille Ball, and his grandparents are buried. He was survived by his four children, Pamela Ball Von Pinnon, Melissa LeBritton, April Jackson, and Geoffrey Ball, as well as seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Fred's wife, Zo Ball, died on May 12, 2013, at the age of 93.
Fred Ball
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Attempts to revive her failed and her death was officially pronounced at 5:47 a.m. PDT. Doctors determined that Ball had succumbed to an abdominal aortic aneurysm and subsequent rupture, and that it was not directly related to her upper aneurysm and surgery the previous week. Cigarette smokers are known to have increased risk of abdominal aneurysm. Ball had been a heavy smoker most of her life. She was 77 years old.
Lucille Ball