SPIN CYCLE

Missing my Alice a Bunch

Here's the story of a lovely lady. The Brady Bunch's other lovely lady, Ann B. Davis, who played the big, blended family's lovable live-in housekeeper, Alice.

What child and mother of the '70s didn't want an Alice? Not only was Alice a cherished confidante, a cooker of jam for the hoedown party and willing dunking booth participant, she made beds and scrubbed bathrooms (well, at least that one bathroom for six kids -- and they never did show a toilet).

Davis, who died June 1 at age 88, had other acting roles -- on The Bob Cummings Show, in commercials and theater productions. But she was best known as the Bradys' blue-and-white uniformed domestic diva Alice -- slinger of hash (make that pork chops and applesauce) and one-liners.

And her career credits suggest the folksy actress was more than okey-dokey with that. Not only did she appear in the original series (1969-1974), she reprised the Alice role in TV reunion movies The Brady Girls Get Married (1981) and A Very Brady Christmas (1988) and short-lived spin-offs The Brady Brides (1981) and The Bradys (1990). Though Davis admitted to the Chicago Sun-Times "I was never much of a cook," she published Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook 1994 (complete with "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Muffins"). She made a cameo appearance in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). And she appeared with her co-stars at the 2004 TV Land The Brady Bunch 35th Anniversary Reunion Special: Still Brady After All These Years.

(Or maybe she wasn't all that okey-dokey with it. From a USA Today interview back in 2004: "'This lady's trying to get retired,' she said with a grumble, 'and the phone keeps ringing with new things to do with The Brady Bunch.'")

Here are a few life lessons that Davis' character Alice taught me:

Know when to go. When, due to misunderstandings, you don't feel appreciated at your job, leave. Invent a sick aunt in Seattle until your employers beg you back. Do another sick-family-member resignation several years later when it happens again (or when the producers run out of ideas).

Clean up messes. When a lovesick girl's diary goes missing and she's mortified someone will know about her famous crush, call up the famous crush's housekeeper and have him -- squeal! Desi Arnaz Jr.! -- come over to cheer up the girl. It will be the best thing that ever happened to her! Well, until she goes to a dance with Davy Jones.

Find middle ground. When you -- a middle child yourself (is

Style on 06/08/2014

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