Ross signed copies of her memoir “My Days: Happy and Otherwise” during her visit to Albert Lea.
Ross in her role as Richard Gilmore’s mother in the TV show “Gilmore Girls.” — Courtesy television still
natural, Ross said. Ross thought she could be like that, too. “Now, we’ve so humanized our stars,” she said. “These were just idols: absolute fantasy figures.” Ross moved to Albert Lea in the third grade. She was behind in reading. “I remember the torture of sitting in a circle of little chairs and you’re reading and ‘you’re next — you are — and you’re closer to me,’” she said. That’s when she experienced stage fright: as the responsibility of reading aloud grew closer. During elementary school, Ross had a classmate who had a speech impediment. Because she liked the way her classmate talked, Ross mimicked her. “I’m much more interested in not so much what somebody is saying but how they say it,” she said. “I listen to the rhythm and how they say things, especially if it’s different.” The pair was sent to remedial speech class. “I snapped right out of it,” Ross said. She didn’t snap out of her Minnesota accent until she realized she had one. Ross moved to the Twin Cities after her sophomore year and took drama lessons from a woman who told her she had to learn how to breathe differently — from the diaphragm — and to speak differently. Ross said she has always had a thing for accents. “It’s an instinct,” she said. “... I’m not so taken with myself. I’d far more be you, and if you’re going to be an actor, you want to do that.” ‘It was a thrill, being a “Happy Days” fan’ Over the course of her career, Ross played many people. Thanks to her role as Mrs. Cunningham on “Happy Days,” she also played many games of softball. Ross took up the rover position and would play ball with the media. “They always thought we were kidding,” Ross said. “No, we were not kidding. We were very serious. In fact, we had to win.” She remembered being bawled out on the bus ride back when she missed a play, but she could hit, she said. “I would run with my arms up like this so (the other team) would overthrow first base because they didn’t want to hit that fine old lady,” Ross said. “I was, like, 50 years old playing softball.” Ross, now 90, said traveling together, eating together and playing ball together kept the cast together as a family. The “Happy Days” team traveled all over the country to play ball. “It was a great device for meeting the public,” she said. When a team member got tired, someone else would take over and that team member would go out to meet people. After the last performance of “Happy Days,” the very next morning the