Thelma Carpenter; Singer, Actress on Radio, Stage, TV

Thelma Carpenter, singer and actress whose erratic 70-year career took her from the intimate jazz clubs of Harlem to Broadway, movie theaters and the Hollywood Bowl, where she performed with the legendary Duke Ellington, has died. She was 75.

Carpenter was found dead of a heart attack May 14 in her New York City apartment.

Perhaps best known in the 1940s, she recently guest-starred on the “Cosby” show and in 1993 sang on the NBC special “Apollo Theater Hall of Fame” hosted by Bill Cosby.

Carpenter’s long, if uneven, career was highlighted by appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Carnegie Hall; portrayal of the bag-lady witch singing “He’s the Wizard” in the 1978 film version of “The Wiz”; and posing as the mouthy mother-in-law, Mabel Bates, in the 1970 ABC-TV series “Barefoot in the Park.”

As the standby for Pearl Bailey, Carpenter performed the title role in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway 101 times.

Her sporadic recording career was highlighted by a clever response to an Elvis Presley hit, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

“I heard it in the car one night and said to a songwriter friend, Henry Jerome, ‘I should sing him an answer to that,’ ” she told The Times in 1970. The result was her popular “Yes, I’m Lonesome Tonight.”

The precocious Carpenter made her radio debut on Jack Darrell’s “Kiddie’s Hour” when she was 5. She later won an amateur night contest at Harlem’s Apollo and by age 16 was performing in small lounges such as the Onyx Club on Manhattan’s “Swing Alley.”

As a vocalist, she traveled with the bands of Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins and Count Basie. She was hired to replace Dinah Shore on Eddie Cantor’s radio show, had her own Sunday night NBC radio program for a time and appeared with Shirley Booth on CBS’ “Campbell Soup Hour.”

Carpenter debuted on Broadway with Bojangles Robinson in “Memphis Bound” in 1944 and three years later sang the show-stopping “Blue Grass” in the revue “Inside USA.” She created the role of Irene Paige in “Bubbling Brown Sugar.”

She co-starred in two Francis Ford Coppola works, the film “The Cotton Club” and his segment of the anthology movie “New York Stories.”

A public memorial service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. May 31 at Holy Word Church in New York City.