Local Killed on 14 Fwy. Was Big Band Singer

The elderly Santa Monica woman was Milly Ericson, the Los Angeles County Coroner confirmed Tuesday.

Ericson, an entertainer who owned her own photo retouching business, would have turned 84 years old Saturday.

According to her business' website, millysretouching.com, she launched a successful signing career in her hometown of Detroit, where she sang with local bands before landing a recording contract and appearances on radio and TV.

She toured with big bands, including Ray Anthony and Tommy Dorsey.

She went on to CBS radio in Chicago, where for two years she appeared on the daily morning show, music-variety shows and was a regular on CBS’s TV Lunch Hour show. A recording contract brought her to California where she landed the girl singer role on “Words About Music,” a weekly show starring Oscar Levant and Elsa Lancaster.

She was a wife and mother who was writing her own memoir and enjoyed power walking along the beach, according to the website.

City News Service reported that Ericson died in the afternoon Dec. 13 while walking from the center divider of the Antelope Valley Freeway near Via Princessa. She was struck by the front-end of a Palmdale man's car, and thrown into the next lane.