June Blair, 'Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet' Star, Dead at 90

By Daniel S. Levine

June Blair, who starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, has died. Blair co-starred on the show with the late David Nelson, whom she was married to from 1961 to 1975. She was 90.

Blair's niece, Tracy Christine Nelson, announced her death on Facebook on Dec. 6. "Sweet, gorgeous Aunt June Blair Nelson has passed away. God bless James and Dan, I love you," Tracy wrote, sending a message to Blair's two sons.

Blair made her first appearance on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1960, playing two different roles in Season 9 episodes. During Season 10, Blair was reintroduced as June Nelson, David Nelson's wife, and daughter-in-law to Ozzie and Harriet. Blair starred in 28 episodes of the show and remained part of the series until it ended in 1966.

The actress was born in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 1932, reports Variety. She was abandoned by her parents and grew up as a ward of the state of California. Blair made her first television appearance in 1956 on CBS' Our Miss Brooks. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, she would pop up in other television shows and had small roles in several films. She had uncredited roles in The Girl He Left Behind, This Could Be the Night, Man of a Thousand Faces, My Man Godfrey, and The Best of Everything. In January 1957, she was Playboy's Playmate of the Month. Her other credits include Look Up, The Aquanauts, Bat Masterson, The Chevy Mystery Show, M Squad, Sea Hunt, Tombstone Territory, The Texan, and Hawaiian Eye.

In 1961, Blair met Nelson when he appeared on the Western series Two Faces West. They married that year, and she left the acting business once The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet wrapped up. After Blair and Nelson divorced in 1975, she never remarried. Nelson married his second wife, Yvonne O'Connor Huston in 1975 and he died in January 2011 at age 74. Blair is survived by her two sons with Nelson, Daniel and James, and her granddaughter Paige.

"I've always been an independent girl," Blair said in 1963, notes The Hollywood Reporter. "I was afraid the Nelsons might try to absorb me, as it were, but they haven't. The way it's worked out, they're there if I need them, and they're not there when I don't."

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