Bryna Raeburn was a remarkable voice over actress who was born and raised in Jersey City. She performed in
The Jersey City Heights being what it is, Bryna Raeburn is perhaps best remembered here as the Josephine XV who did the follow-up record to They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
Bryna Raeburn lived one block away from us. One day while waiting for a taxi at Journal Square, my mother noticed Bryna at the end of the line and so suggested that she ride with us. In the cab, my mother asked Bryna Raeburn about her work. What followed was like a daytime seance with a multitude of different voices filling the air.
That’s very interesting! Bryna Raeburn was quite a prolific–and talented–voice actress of radio (even into the 1970’s in the CBS Radio Mystery Theater). Did you ever have the opportunity to speak with her again after that one encounter?
I don’t believe that I did. Her daughter — Joanne — still lives nearby in Jersey City.
Was “Bryna Raeburn” her actual name or a stage name? Any idea? Not much information seems to exist about her personal life, unfortunately. I have read that she died in 1986, but who even knows if that’s correct?