Ginny Tyler Goodbye

She charmed us as the lovestruck squirrel in The Sword in the Stone who sadly was unlucky in love.

Picture from the Disney Wiki.

Ginny Tyler, a Disney Legend inductee, died earlier last month at "a Washington nursing home" (Wikipedia).  She was 86.

Tyler provided the voices of a few background characters in some Disney movies and a few Disney Parks rides.  Aside from the red-headed squirrel in The Sword in the Stone, she also voiced the singing lambs in Mary Poppins and even (uncredited) the bees from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Trees! At the Parks, she provided voices for Enchanted Tiki Room's pre-show, Snow White's Scary Adventures, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

An interesting non-Disney role she had was the voice (uncredited) of Polynesia from Doctor Doolittle starring Rex Harrison, a movie I particularly love.

Probably her most famous role was as the "'last original Mousekeeter'" (The Disney Wiki). According to the Disney Wiki, "when the 'Mickey Mouse Club' was re-introduced for national TV syndication in 1962, Southern California viewers were treated to special new sequences in which Ginny explored Disneyland park. She interviewed cast members, ventured behind the scenes and shared the fun in almost every nook and cranny."  I believe this was perhaps her only onscreen role, as she did mostly off screen voice acting.

Farewell, Ginny Tyler, and give Walt Disney a big hug up there for us Disney Freaks down here.  We will miss you.

A quick note: I found out about her death just today in Time while waiting at the orthodontist's.  She actually died on July 13th I found out while doing research for this post, so I apologize for the, er, late obituary here.

***UPDATE***

Over at the Disney Parks Blog, the recent post on Ginny Tyler notes that she died on Friday the 13th!  What a coincidence for a woman who provided some witch cackles for Snow White's Scary Adventures.