"She was someone who was pure. Her persona was always Sally Starr. She understood the importance of being a personality on and off the air. She was always in costume. She represented the true style of what it was to be a personality."
Sally Starr was born Alleen Mae Beller, in Kansas City, Mo., on Jan. 25, 1923, the second-oldest of five sisters raised in a hardscrabble environment. In a 2011 Daily News interview, she recalled her excitement as a little girl when her father installed her family home's first lightbulb.
Supermarkets, fast-food outlets, toy stores and car dealerships within a 60-mile radius of Philadelphia lured vast crowds by sponsoring her personal appearances. Such was her fame and the esteem in which she was held by her fans that Sally Starr yearbooks and dolls were highly coveted souvenirs.
