* Portia Nelson; Actress, Songwriter

Portia Nelson, 80, a prolific songwriter, New York cabaret singer and actress. Betty Mae Nelson was born in Brigham City, Utah, the youngest of nine children. School friends took to calling her Portia after the main character in the radio soap opera “Portia Faces Life,” which she kept as her stage name. After being discovered by CBS records while performing at a club in Studio City, Nelson moved to New York where she had extensive runs at such clubs as Cafe Society, the Blue Angel and the Bon Soir. Her most noted film part was that of Sister Berthe in “The Sound of Music.” For many years she played the nanny Mrs. Gurney on the TV soap opera “All My Children.” She was the first to record a song by Bart Howard that has now become a popular standard, “Fly Me to the Moon.” As a songwriter, Nelson’s most noted composition was “Make a Rainbow,” which was sung by Marilyn Horne at President Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. On Tuesday at her home in New York City.