Sarajane Hurst | TV producer, 82

Sarajane "Cissie" Hurst, 82, of Margate, N.J., one of Philadelphia's first female television producers, died of chronic lymphocyte leukemia Wednesday at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Galloway, N.J. She had battled the disease for 11 years.

"We married in 1950," said Ed Hurst, a longtime Philadelphia radio and television personality. "Fifty-eight years is a long time for someone to be married to the same person in showbiz."

Their life as a couple began when he went into his future wife's office and told her what a big star he was.

"She threw me out," he recalled. "That was the beginning of a great romance."

Mrs. Hurst had a colorful life well before their marriage, he said. She studied ballet and appeared on Broadway in the original Oklahoma!

She graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1949 and worked as a producer for The Steel Pier Show in Atlantic City and other programs, including the Variety Club telethon. She later worked as the publicity and promotion director at WPEN-AM.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by a son, Brian Seth Hurst, and a daughter, Mene Hurst-Kyle.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today at Congregation Beth Israel, 2501 Shore Rd., Northfield, N.J. Burial will be in Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose.

Memorial donations may be made to the Isadore Brodsky Institute for Cancer and Blood Diseases, Hahnemann University Hospital, Broad and Vine Streets, Philadelphia 19102.