The single “Ode to Billie Joe” was a number-one hit and became a big
international seller. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song for 1967.

The song is ranked #412 on Rolling Stone‘s list of "the 500 Greatest Songs
of All Time". The recording of "Ode to Billie Joe" generated eight Grammy
nominations, resulting in three wins for Gentry and one win for arranger
Jimmie Haskell.

Bobbie Gentry (Roberta Lee Streeter) will turn 71 July 27.

 
Eva Marie Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey.

Saint received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 
for her role in the 1954 classic On the Waterfront. She also
starred in Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1959 spy thriller film North by
Northwest.

Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, New York) 

(June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975)

Hayward achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first
of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as
an alcoholic in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947).

 
Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989)

Radner was an original cast member of the hit NBC sketch
comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an
Emmy Award in 1978. She made her big screen debut in
the 1973 film The Last Detail.  

Gilda Radner married comedian Gene Wilder in 1984 and
remained married until her death from ovarian cancer.  

 
Kathy Bates from Misery.

Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee.

After appearing in several minor roles in film and television during the 1970s
and the 1980s, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery
(1990), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress; she also
received a Golden Globe. She followed this with major roles in Fried Green
Tomatoes (1991) and Dolores Claiborne (1995), before playing a featured
role as Molly Brown in Titanic (1997).