When she discovered a lump in her breast as a young woman, a terrified Marcia Wallace returned to her hometown to have it removed. But circa 1970, the small community 70 miles southwest of Des Moines had no pathology lab. So the lump was esconced in a Chinese food carton which Wallace’s sister then drove to the capital city for testing. As Wallace imagined the worst, her sister confessed as how, along the miles of highway, she’d serenaded the package with the Cole Porter evergreen “Begin the Beguine,” substituting the word benign for beguine. “The thought of my sister singing to my lump made me laugh, and feel much less helpless,” says Wallace, an actress known by Simpsons fans as the voice of Edna Krabappel. Read More >>>
