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Meribeth Olive Old began her career in show business with a troop of performers in the Chanute and Yates Center area, with a gentleman of the name of "Dad Ketchum" who took a bunch of the dancers and acrobats to nursing homes and such to perform for people.
She ended up in Chicago at the school of Bruce R. Bruce, where she began to professionally perform under the stage name "Brucetta". It was there she was discovered by a New York agent from New York and began performing all over America.
During World War II, she began performing with the USO, even traveling to London, where she worked with Bob Hope. She was in the first troop to cross the channel after "D-Day." She was in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans captured her props and costumes.
When the war ended, she came home and continued working in such places as the Palace Theater, New York, Las Vegas and for a time with Ted Lewis. She also told stories of her first job, working for Al Capone. She received an invitation to go perform in Europe for seven weeks, and she had immediate success and ended up staying there for seven years.
In London she met Reginald Webber, son of Sir Arthur and Kathleen Webber of Henfield Sussex and after a courtship which lasted from Madrid to Helsinki, Finland; the couple were married in Paris in 1959.
After their marriage, Meribeth had one more performance in Australia and completed her last professional performance at the Radio City Easter Music Hall show in New York in 1962.
She taught dance in Wichita, Iola, Chanute and Yates Center. She passed away in Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas after a battle with cancer.
