Elly May preaches gospel, y'hear

TIM FUNK
Staff Writer

Donna Douglas ended her guest sermon Sunday at St. John's United Methodist Church with a loud whistle through her teeth and a familiar invitation:

"Y'all be sure to come back now. Y'hear?"

It's been 40 years since Douglas first showed up on TV screens as Elly May Clampett, the naive but gorgeous tomboy on "The Beverly Hillbillies." But she can still play the role these days -- if mostly to get people to hear her Christian message.

And judging from the packed pews at the Charlotte church, the sitcom featuring Elly May, her critters and all her kin lives on not only in reruns, but in the hearts of generations of TV watchers.

"My brothers and I fell in love with Elly May Clampett," St. John's pastor, the 33-year-old Rev. Beau Bailey, told the congregation Sunday. "Today, let's fall in love with her as a sister in Christ."

The Louisiana-born Douglas, who now lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., and still wears her hair in a pigtail, was in Charlotte for the Western Film Fair. But she likes to preach wherever she goes. In the 1980s, she attended a Bible school in Tulsa and now appears periodically on a Christian TV station in Orlando.

"Elly May has been a wonderful little door-opener for me," Douglas said in an interview after her church appearance. "People know me and listen because I've been in their homes."

Douglas was in her 20s when "Hillbillies" -- as she refers to it -- began its nine-year run (1962-71) on CBS. The show about an Ozark hillbilly family that strikes it rich and moves to Beverly (Hills, that is) immediately jumped to No. 1 in the ratings and stayed there for two years. Douglas was one fetching reason. She got three times more fan mail -- including marriage proposals -- than her co-stars.

Douglas' take on the show?

"The American Dream," she said. "And no matter who tried to slicker us up, they never could."

In her sermon, she talked about growing up in a rural area, hoping to be a semipro softball pitcher. She got married at 17, had a son, got a divorce. Douglas -- whose real name is Doris Smith -- left her son to be raised by her parents and headed for New York, then Hollywood.

She beat out 500 other actresses to play Elly May. Her advantages: She had a natural Southern accent and, during her interview, she said, sure, she knew how to milk that goat -- and then she did.

Over the years, her per-episode pay went from $500 to $3,750.

The show led to "Frankie & Johnny," a movie co-starring Elvis -- he was "very professional," she said.

Today, the unmarried actress sounds upbeat and chatty about her life. She's a gospel singer who's written a children's book combining Elly May's love for farm animals with her own love for the Bible -- one of the pigs meets the Prodigal Son.

She stays in touch with living co-stars Max Baer Jr. and Buddy Ebsen. And though she doesn't have a "cement pond" -- hillbilly lingo for swimming pool -- there is a critter in her life: Elly May, her son's puppy.

Asked her age, she smiled and said she's "on hold." Reference books differ on the year of her birth, but all indicate she's now in her 60s.

The thing Douglas hears most from fans these days?

" `Oh, how we wish we had family shows like yours today. Back then, parents didn't have to worry what their kids were watching on TV.' "

 

Where are the pictures? She still wears her hair in pigtails? Ha Ha!!!

 

I would so do her.

 

Yummy. Ellie Mae.