Barbara Billingsley, 'Leave It to Beaver' mom, dies

LOS ANGELES - Even decades after the show ended, Barbara Billingsley expressed surprise at the lasting affection people had for "Leave It to Beaver" and her role as the warm, supportive mother of a pair of precocious boys.

The actress, who gained supermom status for her gentle portrayal of June Cleaver in the 1950s television series, died yesterday after a long illness. She was 94.

"We knew we were making a good show, because it was so well written," Billingsley said in 1994. "But we had no idea what was ahead. People still talk about it and write letters, telling how much they watch it today with their children and grandchildren."

Billingsley, who had suffered from a rheumatoid disease, died at her home in Santa Monica, said family spokeswoman Judy Twersky.

When the show debuted in 1957, Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver, was 9, and Tony Dow, who portrayed Wally, was 12. Billingsley's character, the perfect stay-at-home 1950s mom, was there to gently but firmly nurture both through the ups and downs of childhood. Beaver, meanwhile, was a typical boy whose adventures landed him in one comical crisis after another.

Billingsley's own two sons said she was pretty much the image of June Cleaver in real life, although she disagreed.

"She was every bit as nurturing, classy and lovely as June Cleaver, and we were so proud to share her with the world," her son Glenn Billingsley said yesterday.

After "Leave it to Beaver" left the air in 1963, Billingsley largely disappeared from public view for several years. She resurfaced in 1980 in a hilarious cameo in "Airplane!" playing a demure passenger not unlike June Cleaver, at least on the surface.

Born Barbara Lillian Combes in Los Angeles on Dec. 22, 1915, she was raised by her mother after her parents divorced. She and husband Glenn Billingsley divorced when her sons were 2 and 4. Her second husband, director Roy Kellino, died of a heart attack after three years of marriage. She married physician Bill Mortenson in 1959. He died in 1981. Twersky said Billingsley's survivors include her sons, a stepson and numerous grandchildren.