In May of 2019, Doris Day passed away in her home in California, after succumbing to the ill effects of untreated pneumonia. Her legacy today is carried on through her animal welfare organizations.
Plus, she will always be immortalized in so many different roles, including the tough but funny, sharpshooting girl, Calamity Jane. She also has one grandchild, Ryan Melcher, a realtor in Carmel, California.
"The Doris Day Show" ran on CBS for five years, from 1968 to 1973. It was known for its major changes between seasons, including a plethora of cast members.
Although Martin Melcher had signed Day up for the show without her knowledge and consent, he was still given the credit of “executive producer” for season one. But after the first season, Day gained a bit more control over what went on.
Although she may not have wanted it originally, she seemed to really come into her own on the show. For the first three years, it operated as a family sitcom, until it radically shifted in the fourth year to focus more on Day as a single woman.
It was in those years that everyone wanted to see more daring and dangerous female characters, and were starting to get tired of seeing the same old type of “man marries woman, has child and works until he dies, rinse and repeat” type of deal.
During the early 1970’s, Doris decided to focus her energy outside of work on a good cause. She had always been an advocate for animal rights, but now she was in a position where she could start her own animal rights organization - and that’s exactly what she did.
She launched the Doris Day Animal Foundation, which works to support rescues, spay and neuter programs for strays, and abused and/or neglected animals.
Doris Day was one of the first celebrities who realized that their celebrity power could be used as a voice for those who have none of their own. Long before she started her own animal welfare foundations, she was championing for the cause. In 1971, she started Actors and Others for Animals.
While filming "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in Morocco, she would take time to feed the strays, and try and figure out ways to help the locals better care for them.