Madge Skelly

Madeline Esther "Madge" Skelly (May 9, 1903 – May 27, 1993), later Madge Skelly-Hakanson, was an American actress, playwright, director, college professor, speech pathologist and audiologist.

Madge Skelly
An older woman in harsh light, grey hair in a bouffant updo, wearing tinted glasses and speaking at a microphone
Madge Skelly, from a 1974 publication of the United States federal government
Born
Madeline Esther Skelly

May 9, 1903
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DiedMay 27, 1993
St. Louis, Missouri
Other namesMadeline Foust, Madge Skelly-Hakanson
Occupation(s)Actress, playwright, director, audiologist, speech pathologist

Early life

Madeline Esther Skelly was born in Hazelwood, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Charles J. Skelly and Julia Purcell Skelly. Her parents were Iroquois-Onandaga performers.[1] She graduated from Seton Hill College in 1924. She earned a master's degree at Duquesne University in 1928, and a second master's degree at the University of Arizona. She completed doctoral studies in speech pathology at Saint Louis University in 1962, in her late fifties.[2][3]

Career

Theatre and radio

Skelly began her career in theatre from an early age, and continued through college and afterwards, as an actress, director, and playwright. She worked at KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, as a sound technician, writer, and on-air talent.[2] She appeared on Broadway in several shows.[4] She was director of the Tucson Little Theatre in Arizona,[4] the Brattle Theatre in Massachusetts, the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre in Michigan, and, from 1952 to 1961, managing director of the Manistee Summer Theatre.[5] She wrote at least twenty plays. The Manistee Civic Theatre has a Madge Skelly Tower, named for Skelly in 1974.[5] One of the young actors she mentored at Manistee was James Earl Jones.[5][6][7]

Skelly was dean of drama and dean of women at Duquesne University. She taught speech at the University of Arizona, and speech and drama at Maryville College.[8][9]

Richard Nixon posed standing and smiling in the Oval Office with five recipients of the 1974 Federal Woman's Award; from left, Brigid Leventhal, Madge Skelly, Nixon, Henriette Avram, Gladys Rogers, and Roselyn P. Epps
Richard Nixon posed standing and smiling in the Oval Office with five recipients of the 1974 Federal Woman's Award; from left, Brigid Leventhal, Madge Skelly, Nixon, Henriette Avram, Gladys Rogers, and Roselyn P. Epps

Speech pathology

After earning degrees in speech pathology, she worked in veterans' hospitals and children's hospitals, with patients who needed speech rehabilitation following an injury or illness.[10][11] She incorporated gestural expression systems from Iroquois tradition into her work,[12][13] and made a video, Compensatory techniques for the glossectomee (1977), about her techniques.[14]

Skelly was chief of audiology and speech pathology services at John J. Cochran Hospital in St. Louis,[1] and taught at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.[5] She also taught at Fontbonne University in Missouri.[15] Her research was published in academic journals, including the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders,[16] American Journal of Nursing,[17] Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery,[18] and The American Journal of Surgery.[19]

Selected publications
  • "Total glossectomy for cancer" (1968, with Robert C. Donaldson and Francis X. Paletta)[19]
  • "Compensatory Physiologic Phonetics for the Glossectomee" (1971, with Diane J. Spector, Robert C. Donaldson, Armand Brodeur, and Francis X. Paletta)[20]
  • "Dysphonias Associated with Spinal Bracing in Scoliosis" (1971, with Robert C. Donaldson, George E. Scheer, and Margaret R. Guzzardo)[21]
  • "Changes in Phonatory Aspects of Glossectomee Intelligibility through Vocal Parameter Manipulation" (1972, with Robert C. Donaldson, Rita Solovitz Fust, and Diana L. Towsend)[16]
  • "Visor Flap Reconstruction for a Massive Oropharyngeal Defect" (1973, with John M. Griffin, Robert C. Donaldson, and Francis X. Paletta)[18]
  • "American Indian sign (Amerind) as a facilitator of verbalization for the oral verbal apraxic" (1974, with Lorraine Schinsky, Randall W. Smith, and Rita Solovitz Fust)[22]
  • "Rethinking stroke: Aphasic patients talk back" (1975)[17]

Personal life

Skelly married twice. She married her first husband, actor Ray King Foust, in 1928;[23] he died in World War II. Her second husband was Richard Hakanson, a fellow theatre professional.[2] She experienced arthritis, diabetes, and vision impairment later in life.[11] She died in 1993, aged 90 years, in St. Louis.[24]

Awards and recognition

In 1974, Skelly received the Federal Woman's Award.[25] She was awarded the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal from her alma mater, Seton Hill University. She gave an oral history interview to the Schlesinger Library in 1981.[26] She was posthumously inducted into the Association of Veterans Affairs Speech-Language Pathologists (AVASLP) Hall of Fame in 2002.[27]

References
  1. "Native American Veterans Affairs Innovator" (PDF). Office of Tribal Government Relations Newsletter: 15. November 2015.
  2. "Madge Hakanson". Bratenahl Historical Society. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  3. Clark, Jane (1962-06-07). "Ph.D. Behind the Footlights". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Madge Skelly to Direct TLT Winter Season". Arizona Daily Star. 1955-07-22. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Fedder, Mark (2013-07-12). "Summer Theater Act 2: Enter Madge Skelly". Manistee News Advocate. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  6. Jones, James Earl; Niven, Penelope (2002). Voices and Silences: With a New Epilogue. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 85, 145. ISBN 978-0-87910-969-1.
  7. "James Early Jones to Help Raise Funds for Cultural Center". Lansing State Journal. 2006-09-09. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Jones, Carol (1960-04-13). "All the World's a Stage to Her". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. p. 15. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Stock Group Elects Maryville Professor". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1960-01-01. p. 23. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Skelly, Madge (1973). Glossectomee speech rehabilitation. Springfield, Ill.: Thomas. ISBN 0-398-02706-4. OCLC 632048.
  11. Chorlton, Penny (1982-07-14). "Signs of help for those who have lost their tongues". The Guardian. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Skelly, Madge (1979). Amer-Ind gestural code based on universal American Indian hand talk. Lorraine Schinsky. New York: Elsevier. ISBN 0-444-00333-9. OCLC 5286014.
  13. Adams, Robert (1977-02-03). "Woman Adapts Indian Sign for Use by Hospital Patients". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 67. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Skelly, Madge; VITV Network (1977). Compensatory techniques for the glossectomee. Washington: Veterans Administration. OCLC 938875953.
  15. "Madge Skelly Archbishop Noll Award Finalist" (PDF). The Font. April 26, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  16. Skelly, Madge; Donaldson, Robert C.; Fust, Rita Solovitz; Townsend, Diana L. (1972-08-01). "Changes in Phonatory Aspects of Glossectomee Intelligibility through Vocal Parameter Manipulation". Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 37 (3): 379–389. doi:10.1044/jshd.3703.379. PMID 5057254.
  17. Skelly, Madge (1975). "Aphasic Patients Talk Back". The American Journal of Nursing. 75 (7): 1140–1142. doi:10.2307/3423493. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3423493.
  18. Griffin, John M.; Donaldson, Robert C.; Skelly, Madge; Paletta, Francis X. (April 1973). "Visor Flap Reconstruction for a Massive Oropharyngeal Defect". Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 51 (4): 457–460. doi:10.1097/00006534-197304000-00026. ISSN 0032-1052. PMID 4689694.
  19. Donaldson, Robert C.; Skelly, Madge; Paletta, Francis X. (October 1968). "Total glossectomy for cancer". The American Journal of Surgery. 116 (4): 585–590. doi:10.1016/0002-9610(68)90397-8. ISSN 0002-9610. PMID 5692132.
  20. Skelly, Madge; Spector, Diane J.; Donaldson, Robert C.; Brodeur, Armand; Paletta, Francis X. (1971-02-01). "Compensatory Physiologic Phonetics for the Glossectomee". Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 36 (1): 101–114. doi:10.1044/jshd.3601.101. PMID 5573256.
  21. Skelly, Madge; Donaldson, Robert C.; Scheer, George E.; Guzzardo, Margaret R. (1971-08-01). "Dysphonias Associated with Spinal Bracing in Scoliosis". Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 36 (3): 368–376. doi:10.1044/jshd.3603.368. PMID 5566116.
  22. Skelly, Madge; Schinsky, Lorraine; Smith, Randall W.; Fust, Rita Solovitz (1974-11-01). "American Indian Sign (Amerind) as a Facilitator of Verbalization for the Oral Verbal Apraxic". Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 39 (4): 445–456. doi:10.1044/jshd.3904.445.
  23. "Wed in Carrollton". The Daily Times. 1928-12-12. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Madge Skelly, 90; Hospital Audiologist". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1993-05-30. p. 48. Retrieved 2021-10-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. Robey, Marie B. (April–June 1974). "Six Federal Women Win Top Award". Civil Service Journal. 14: 33–36.
  26. "Madge Skelly. Tape 1". Interviews of the Women in the Federal Government Oral History Project, 1981-1983, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  27. "Honors / Awards". AVASLP. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
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