Kate Murtagh (October 29, 1920 – September 10, 2017) was an American actress and singer-comedian, a native of Los Angeles, California. Early life Kate Murtagh's parents were both musicians of accomplishment. Her mother, born Wootson Davis in Sikeston, Missouri, moved to New York City in the early 1910s to further her vocal training. By 1914 she married Henry B. Murtagh. He was a nationally-prominent theater organist, pianist, conductor, and composer who held a series of important posts in major U.S. cities. An early position was a 1920-22 contract at the Liberty Theater in Portland, Oregon. In a 1920 competition, he was selected to write music for Oregon’s state song, which was adopted in 1927. By September 1920 Henry B. Murtagh was engaged at Grauman's in Los Angeles. His several years in Buffalo began in April 1924 at the city's Lafayette Square theater. In the late 1920s he was engaged for Brooklyn's new Paramount Theater. Career With her sisters Jean and Onriett, Kate Murtagh performed in a vocal trio coached by her parents while the family lived in Los Angeles. The trio began performing with the goal of singing straight harmony like the Pickens Sisters, whom they idolized, but the performances became more humorous with time. Local radio appearances began as early as 1934. Other performances included such civic organizations as the Monrovia (CA) American Legion Post, and by 1935 they were performing on RKO's vaudeville circuit in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, the trio then also worked as the "Three Radio Kittens". They appeared in the 1938 film Freshman Year (1938). The sisters were then also performing summers in a revival of the old melodrama The Drunkard at Theatre Mart in Beverly Hills, and touring in vaudeville on the Pacific coast and states to the east. Having gained experience, the Murtah Sisters (sic) were able to secure engagements in the large Eastern cities, including Philadelphia’s Carman Theater in March–April 1940. They were members of the touring production of Hellzapoppin in 1940-41 before beginning an October–November 1941 engagement at the Bal Tabarin restaurant, San Francisco. The peak of the trio's success was the wartime years. A few filmed performances—mimed to pre-recordings—survive on soundies filmed in New York in 1942. That year they appeared at the Oriental Theater in Chicago, State Theater in New York, Capitol Theater in Washington, and Chicago's Drake Hotel. New York performances in 1943 included those at the