My Twitter pal, Monica Lewis

Actress and singer Monica Lewis passed away June 12, 2015 at the age of 93. Monica started her singing career in the 1940s as a vocalist with Benny Goodman’s orchestra. In 1950, she signed a singing and acting contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she recorded albums and appeared in films with Mickey Rooney and Red Skelton.

Perhaps Monica is best remembered as the voice of the Miss Chiquita Banana cartoon character—who advised us not to put our bananas in the refrigerator—a job she held for 14 years.

One on Monica’s recent tweets

But to me, Monica will always be @songbirdmonica, her Twitter handle. I love how she would tweet old publicity photos of herself with contemporary captions. Via Twitter I learned that she was from Chicago, the city where I live, and that she sailed the Long Island Sound with her husband, Jennings Lang. I grew up on Long Island and spent many a summer by, near, and in the Sound.

On Twitter, Monica was always engaging and fun. She would often favorite a tweet of mine and she always kindly responded to questions I posed to her. Those of us who tweet with the #TCMParty hashtag have had the pleasure of viewing tweets and interacting with Monica. She was the liveliest 93-year-old I have ever encountered.

I will miss you, Monica. Rest in peace. Amen.