With great sadness, I have to report the death of Sandra Dee on Feb. 20, 2005 from kidney disease. Our sweet little Gidget has caught her last wave. I was never a huge fan of Dee's because she usually came off as too icky sweet for my tastes in drivel like the Tammy movies and her romantic comedies with Bobby Darin whom she wed and then divorced. But there were exceptions.

I enjoy that camp classic A Summer Place (1959) with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue thrown together on an island off the Maine coast while her adulterous father (Richard Egan) hits the sheets with his neglected mother (Dorothy McGuire). And who can forget Constance Ford as Dee's icy steely-eyed mother who calls in a doctor to make sure Dee is still a virgin after she spends the night on the beach with Donahue after a boating accident. Dee was the envy of every girl (and gay boy) in America as she got to cavort with the gorgeous blonde hottie Troy Donahue on the sandy shores of Maine with Max Steiner's lush musical score as background.

Dee is very funny in Take Her, She's Mine (1963) as a rambunctious coed who makes life difficult for her put-upon father, Jimmy Stewart. And finally Dee's most memorable role has to be Gidget (1959). Only fourteen at the time, she is just adorable as the girl-midget who is determined to surf because she just wants to belong.

For years Sandra was dealing with a drinking problem but with the birth of her granddaughter a few years ago had been sober a number of years and was finally getting her life back in order.

So here's to you Sandra Dee. You may have not been a Carol Lynley or Pamela Tiffin in my eyes but you made a swell Gidget. You'll be missed!