Abilene Reporter News: Obituaries: "Candy Barr, famous exotic dancer, dies at age of 70
By Celinda Emison / Reporter-News Staff Writer
January 1, 2006
Candy Barr, who made headlines as a burlesque dancer and for her drug arrests before living quietly near Brownwood, died of pneumonia Friday at a Victoria hospital. She was 70.
Barr was born Juanita Dale Slusher, on July 6, 1935, in Edna.
She rose to fame in the late 1950s as a burlesque dancer at The Colony Club in Dallas. She also performed Los Angeles and Las Vegas, making her one of the most well-known exotic dancers in the country. At one point, Barr earned $2,000 a week.
Her sister, Kay Slusher Anderson, 77, of Houston, said Barr had been a recluse for the past three years, living in a small house in Morales, 11 miles north of her hometown of Edna.
''I am proud to be her sister,'' she said. ''She deserves the recognition. She was the most famous dancer ever.''
Gloria Carver (formerly Gloria Orr) was Barr's friend for more than 40 years and helped her after she moved to Brownwood.
''There will never be another one,'' she said of her friend. ''She was beautiful.''"
I lived in Brownwood when Candy Barr moved there, and I drove by her house at Lake Brownwood several times, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Never did. She wrote poetry and self-published a collection of her work. She did a signing at the Walgreen's drugstore, and I got to see here then. She was a Texas original.
5 comments:
She looks good for 70...
Ohhh, Candy. When I was a lad I discovered a magazine in the house featuring an extensive Candy Barr pictorial. She was buck nekked and you could see all the good parts, which was unheard of in 1958 or 1959. I was sure my mother would toss it out if she found it, so I hid it in various places around the house, but not in my room. It was, after all, my father's property. Every so often I'd sneak it out and drink in the uncensored beauty of this stunning, glorious woman. My only regret is that at that age (10 or 11) I was totally unaware of self abuse.
I agree, she sure doesn't look seventy. Snicker.
Yikes, I remember reading about her too, which means I'm getting old.
Sooo, Bill, you drove by her house? Was the street crowded with other diver byers???
Errr, make that drive byers. Sorry, my spelling brain is on vacation.
I saw the obit in the Kerrville paper and it took me back. I grew up in Brownwood and while I never met her, I heard about her. Now that she's gone, I find myself wanting to know more about her. She certainly had a very natural beauty. I looked up a 2001 Texas Monthly article about her. It seemed rather sad that she ended up alone. She was a sexual abue vistim which explains some of her early bad choices and perhaps her over focus on how she looked and how she related to men....almost like Marilyn....think I'll go to Edna and look up info on her....
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