Carol Hall dies at 82

Carol Hall, 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' Composer and Lyricist, Dies at 82

 

Carol Hall, the singer, songwriter and recording artist best known for writing the music and lyrics for the long-running Broadway hit The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, has died. She was 82.

Hall died Thursday at her home in New York City surrounded by her husband and children, publicist Jessica Johnson announced. She had been wrestling with logopenic Primary Progressive Aphasia, a rare form of dementia, for three years.

Hall was a major contributor to Marlo Thomas' Peabody and Emmy-winning 1974 ABC special and gold album Free to Be … You and Me, which saluted individuality and tolerance. She wrote the popular classics "It's All Right to Cry," "Parents Are People" and "Glad to Have a Friend Like You."

Hall also served as contributing editor and songwriter to its sequel, Free to Be … A Family, and assisted with Thomas' illustrated book and CD, Thanks & Giving/All Year Long ("A Smile Connects Us"; music by Robert Burke).

The first mass-market effort to help parents deal with gender discrimination — boys can have dolls, girls can be firefighters — Free to Be … You and Me featured stars like Alan Alda, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing and Rosey Grier performing songs and sketches.

Hall later became a contributor to Sesame Street, writing the song "True Blue Miracle" for the 1978 program Christmas Eve on Sesame Street as well as "Big Bird's Birthday Bash."

One of the few women to write both music and lyrics for Broadway, Hall — a native of Abilene, Texas — received two Drama Desk Awards in 1978 for her score and lyrics to Best Little Whorehouse.