Obituary: Pearce, Anna “Patty Duke”

PEARCE, Anna “Patty Duke”
(Age 68)

Longtime North Idaho resident Anna Marie Pearce, known professionally as Patty Duke, passed away March 29, 2016 after a brief illness, leaving behind a tremendous legacy of artistic accomplishment and public-health advocacy.

Born Anna Marie Duke on December 14, 1946 in Elmhurst, New York to John and Frances (McMahon) Duke, she was well-known to the public since the days of her youth, and it was in her later life that her work had perhaps the most important and lasting impact.

After winning an Oscar at the age of sixteen for her stunning portrayal of the blind and deaf Helen Keller in 1962’s The Miracle Worker-a role she originated on Broadway alongside Anne Bancroft-Ms. Pearce fortified her place in the American cultural landscape as the title character on The Patty Duke Show, making her the youngest person ever to headline a major network television show.

Continued commercial and artistic success followed her into and throughout the seventies and eighties, and she received a Golden Globe and three Emmy awards for outstanding performances, including 1979’s adaptation of The Miracle Worker, with Ms. Pearce assuming the role originated by Ms. Bancroft.

In 1982, she was diagnosed as manic-depressive-now referred to as bipolar disorder-and rather than adhering to the Hollywood custom of secrecy and stigma associated with disease, Ms. Pearce was as open as possible about it, penning an autobiography and announcing to the world both her affliction and her given name, long obscured by a name change foisted upon her in childhood.

The book Call Me Anna spent many weeks on best-seller lists, and fostered the beginning of a national dialogue about mental health.

In 1985, she met Idaho native Michael Pearce on the set of a television film shooting on location in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Mr. Pearce, a drill instructor in the United States Army at the time, became her husband the following year, beginning a love affair that would last the rest of her life.

The two moved from Los Angeles to North Idaho in 1990, where “Patty Duke” became a regular fixture in Coeur d’Alene that locals soon knew simply as Anna.

As professional acting work became sporadic, Ms. Pearce and her husband began traveling by car to institutions across the country, delivering speeches on the importance of mental health awareness.

For weeks at a time, the two would drive to colleges, universities, and mental health facilities, where they would speak about their experiences, Ms. Pearce candidly sharing the highs and lows of her youth, which had often appeared splashed across the pages of tabloid magazines.

It was through this work that Ms. Pearce converted the good will and notoriety of her celebrity into an opportunity to create lasting value in the lives of those who knew her performances, but not her story.

The honesty with which she spoke about her struggles had a positive effect wherever she went.

Throughout her career, she portrayed women of tremendous strength and resolve, undaunted by the challenges before them-characters that audiences often found inspiring.

And in the candor with which she spoke as an advocate for mental health awareness, the people who had come to know her onscreen could easily find similarities to her in their own lives, advancing the notion that they too had opportunities to overcome difficulty and to succeed.

While her family is devastated by her sudden loss, they take refuge in the fact that the legacy she leaves behind-both as a gifted performer and a celebrated mental health advocate-is one of hope.

She is survived by her husband, Michael Ray Pearce; sons, Sean Astin (Christine), Mackenzie Astin (Jennifer), and Kevin Pearce; daughter, CharLene Gibson (John); brother, Raymond Duke (Lucille); brother-in-law, Charlie Kennedy; nephews, Scott Duke (Janie), John Kennedy (Alan Ripp), Charles Kennedy, and Michael Kennedy (Kathleen); niece, Dinamarie Anderson (Joe); grandchildren, Alexandra, Elizabeth and Isabella Astin, and Audrey, Olivia and Charles Gibson; and also numerous beloved cousins around the country, and grandnieces and grandnephews, many of whom know her lovingly as “Uncle Annie”.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Carol Kennedy, and daughter, RaeLene Pearce.

Her memorial service will be 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 16, 2016 at Lake City Community Church, 600 N. Ramsey Rd., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with YATES FUNERAL HOME, Coeur d’Alene in care of the arrangements.

You may visit Anna’s online memorial and sign her guestbook at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com