Loretta Ables Sayre

Loretta Ables Sayre (born April 1, 1958) is an American actress and singer who performed jazz standards at luxury hotels in Hawaii for three decades. During her career, Ables Sayre performed in a few musicals and guest-starred in several television shows, also doing work in commercials. In her 2007 Broadway debut as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress and also won the 2008 Theatre World Award.

Early life and career

Ables Sayre was born in Stockton, California to a Filipino father and a mother of mixed Asian and European descent. She has an older sister and brother. Her father was 25 years older than her mother, and eventually the couple divorced. Her mother remarried, and Ables Sayre has two younger half-siblings. She was raised in Hawaii after her stepfather, who was in the United States Navy, was transferred there when Ables Sayre was six years old. She attended Pearl Harbor Elementary School, Aliamanu Intermediate, and Admiral Arthur W. Radford High School in Honolulu, participating in school plays and choirs. As a small child, inspired by her mother's Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan recordings, Ables Sayre already knew that she wanted to become a singer.