ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 23, 1995 TAG: 9512250043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AUGUSTA, GA.
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Butterfly McQueen, who played Scarlett O'Hara's young, scatterbrained slave Prissy in ``Gone With the Wind,'' died Friday after suffering critical burns when a kerosene heater caught fire. She was 84.
McQueen told firefighters her clothes caught fire when she was trying to light one of two kerosene heaters in her one-bedroom cottage just outside Augusta. She was lying on the sidewalk when firefighters arrived.
She was taken to Augusta Regional Medical Center with second- and third-degree burns over 70 percent of her body.
McQueen's career spanned Broadway, the movies and television. But, for better or worse, her immortality rested on her small role in the 1939 film that became an enduring phenomenon. It was a role no black performer could relish - a slave, and a dimwitted one who gets slapped by the heroine.
``I hated it. The part of Prissy was so backward,'' McQueen told an interviewer in 1986. ``I was always whining and complaining. ... But now I'm very glad I made the film because I make a living off it. You wouldn't be here if I hadn't been Prissy.''
Born Thelma McQueen, she got the nickname Butterfly early in her career after dancing the Butterfly Ballet in a production of ``A Midsummer Night's Dream.''
She couldn't attend the 1939 premiere of ``GWTW'' because it was held in a whites-only theater, but was one of the honored guests at the 50th anniversary premiere.
After ``GWTW,'' she spent several years in Hollywood, appearing in such films as ``Affectionately Yours,'' ``Duel in the Sun,'' ``I Dood It,'' ``Cabin in the Sky'' and ``Since You Went Away.''
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB