Judith Lowry
Lowry inPhyllis, 1976
Born	Judith Carter Ives (1890-07-27)July 27, 1890 Fort Sill,Oklahoma Territory, U.S.[1]
Died	November 29, 1976(1976-11-29) (aged 86) Greenwich Village, New York, U.S.[1]
Resting place	Long Island National Cemetery,Farmingdale, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1913–1921, 1952–1976[1]
Spouse	Rudd Lowry (1920–1965; his death)
Children	9

Judith Carter Lowry (néeIves; July 27, 1890 – November 29, 1976) was an American actress. She had nearly 30 film and television roles and appeared on stage, most notably in the Off-Broadway production ofThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds^[2] and onBroadway inArchibald MacLeish'sJ.B.^[3] She became well known for her role as Mother Dexter on theCBS showPhyllis during the last year of her life, but died midway through the show's second season.

Judith Carter Ives was born atFort Sill, Oklahoma, where her father was temporarily stationed. She was the daughter of Mildred Elizabeth Megeath (July 17, 1864 – 1923) and Francis Joseph Ives (July 19, 1857 – November 27, 1908). Her father was a career surgeon in theU.S. Army, attaining the rank ofmajor.^[4]

Her father saw action in theSpanish–American War, serving initially inCuba and later in thePhilippines,^[4] before retiring toWashington, D.C. in 1908, where he died. Through her father, Lowry was a descendant ofAmerican Revolutionary War soldier Asahel Ives.^[5]

Lowry made her stage debut in 1913 in a stock company in Washington, D.C. In 1921, she gave birth to her first child and retired from acting to raise her family.^[1] She resumed her acting career in 1952 after the youngest of nine children turned 18, appearing on stage and taking occasional bit parts in film and television. It was not until her eighties that she began to receive more substantial roles. Lowry played an uncredited part inValley of the Dolls (1967) as Aunt Amy, followed by roles in such films asThe Anderson Tapes andCold Turkey.^{[citation needed]}

Her best-remembered role is that of acid-tongued, no-nonsense Mother Dexter on the 1970s sitcomPhyllis, starringCloris Leachman. This was Lowry's last major acting role. She died of aheart attack during the series' final season. One of the last episodes she filmed before her death, "Mother Dexter's Wedding", marked the final appearance of veteran actorBurt Mustin, who played her bridegroom, Arthur Lanson. By the time the episode aired in December 1976, Lowry had died at age 86, and the 92-year-old Mustin, who died in January 1977, was too ill to see it. After the airing of "Mother Dexter's Wedding", five more episodes ofPhyllis followed in which Lowry appeared.^[1]

Lowry collapsed and died from a heart attack while walking down a Greenwich Village street with her son Rayphield Semmes Lowry, on November 29, 1976; she was 86 years old.^[1] She was buried next to her husband, Rudd Lowry, in Long Island National Cemetery,Farmingdale, New York.^[1]

• Judith Lowry atIMDb
• Judith Lowry at theInternet Broadway Database
• Judith Lowry at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Video: clip from episode ofPhyllis - "Mother Dexter's Wedding" onYouTube

• 1890 births
• 1976 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• Actresses from Washington, D.C.
• American film actresses
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• People from Fort Sill, Oklahoma

• Internet Off-Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata
• Internet Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata
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