Blake, Amanda

(Beverly Louise Neill, 1929.02.20-1989.08.16)  Actor.

Lived in Phoenix

The former Amanda Blake home in the Arcadia District retains the "B" at the top and center of the gate.  3-02.

Amanda Blake played Miss Kitty Russell, proprietor of Dodge City's Long Branch Saloon, for 19 years on Gunsmoke.

At her four-acre home site at 5105 E. Exeter Street in the Arcadia District of Phoenix, she operated a cat-house of different kind. There she kept a lion and 10 rare cheetahs.

A former caretaker tells of feeling a raspy, wet lick on his hand as he walked away from the cheetah enclosure one day.  He looked down to see the oldest cheetah wandering freely around the yard.  Relieved when the huge cat followed him back into the enclosure, he set aside his worries about newspaper headlines and panicked neighbors.