Anne Shropshire

PARIS - Anne Shropshire (Hyde), retired actress, who used her family name professionally, died May 1, 2013. She was the daughter of Walter Henderson Shropshire and Virginia Kenney Smith Shropshire. She grew up in Bourbon County and graduated from the Paris High School in 1935, afterwards from Randolph-Macon Woman's College, in Lynchburg, Virginia. She earned a Masters Degree from the University of Kentucky's English Department. While there she was active in the Guignol Theatre in the Frank Fowler-Wallace Briggs eras. Next she attended Yale University's School of Drama. After three years of training there she received the Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1949, and left immediately for Greenwich Village in New York City with classmates who produced, directed, and acted in an early off-Broadway "hit," Strindberg's "The Father." She continued in New York for the next fifty years as a professional actress, a member of Actors Equity, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA (TV and radio). Over these years she appeared in numerous other off-Broadway shows, and on Broadway in support roles to such stars as Anthony Perkins, Frederick Marsh, and Melvyn Douglas. In leading roles she performed in regional theatres across the country and locally at Actors' Theatre in Louisville and at the Cincinnati Playhouse, and in Canada in Winnipeg, and notably in "Driving Miss Daisy" in Montreal. Later in her career she turned to film, was seen in most of the soaps, her longest run in "As the World Turns." Her movie credits include "Tootsie." "Green Card," "First Wives Club," but perhaps best remembered as the old aunt who gave "the recipe" to Julia Roberts in "Something to Talk About." In 2001 Miss Shropshire retired to Kentucky with her beloved late husband, George Winfield Hyde, an attorney in New York City and a Navy veteran in World War II. He died at their home in Paris in 2005. She was predeceased also by her brother W.O. Shropshire. She is survived by her sister Kenney Shropshire Roseberry (Clay) and by nieces and nephews: Walter Henderson Shropshire (Joan), David Pettit Shropshire (Barbara), Rogers Roseberry Bard‚ (David, late), Anne Lindsay Roseberry, and Sidney Clay Roseberry (Bonnie); and in the next generation by Patrick Shropshire, Susanne Shropshire, Virginia Bard‚ Berry and William Rogers Bard‚. She is also survived by her dear Hyde nieces and nephew, in the East and in the West: Valerie Carter Hyde, Andrea Hyde Booth and Richard Braden Hyde, and their children. In her retirement years in Kentucky she became a member of the Jemima Johnson Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century. She and her late husband transferred membership from their New York City Parish, Christ and St. Stephens, to St. Peters Parish in Paris. Her funeral service, in the care of Hinton-Turner, will be held at the Church at 2pm on Friday, May 3 and will be conducted by the Rev. Christina Brannock. There will be graveside services in the Paris Cemetery. The family is planning a memorial service to be held later in the summer. Suggested memorial contributions: St. Peters Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 27, Paris, KY 40362-0027; In memory of: Miss Anne Shropshire, The Actors Fund of America, 729 Seventh Ave., 10th Fl., New York, NY 10102-1841.