PCS Exclusive: A conversation with Jacy Dawn Valeras and Hollywood icon Ruta Lee
A conversation about remembering those big moments as they are happening.
By Jacy Dawn Valeras
Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself.
I’ll never get over the fact that my life has led me to tables, chairs, and screens, sitting across from some of the most famous people in the world. True members of Hollywood royalty. People whose lives and experiences I’ve always been curious about… and somehow, I am in a position to ask them about it. Their answers, and often their advice, are things I carry with me into my own life and career long after our interview has ended.
It’s not something I ever take for granted.
Especially not when it comes to someone like Ruta Lee. With a career spanning more than 2,000 television appearances, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and personal friendships with icons like Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, and Sammy Davis Jr., Ruta represents a connection to the golden era of Hollywood.
As always, I was a little nervous to spend an hour with someone whose work I have admired for years, but from the moment we met - virtually, over Zoom - Ruta radiated a warmth that immediately put me at ease. It was hard to believe the starlet staring back at me was, as she so perfectly put it, “hell, I’m ninety years old!” She was every bit as glamorous as you’d expect. Before we even began recording, she introduced me to her son-in-law, who was just off camera helping her stay “tech savvy” for an interview streaming all the way from her home in Hollywood to my studio in Nashville.
Within minutes, it felt less like an interview and more like sitting with someone I’d known forever - like a grandmother I didn’t want to miss a single word from.
She chatted about the weather. Her Lithuanian heritage. Family coming into town. How excited she was to host them. It was simple, human, and real.
And in that moment, I realized something: behind the legacy, the accolades, and the star she earned on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was a woman who had truly lived it all and carried it with effortless grace and gratitude. She was still enjoying all of it - I could tell by the way she beamed, answering each question I asked.
And of course, that life includes roles in films like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Anything Goes, and so many more. Hers is a career most could only dream of.
So I had to ask, “When you’ve lived a life like that, what moments do you go back to?”
***
Jacy: You have worked with some of the greatest of all time: Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, just to name a few. If you could go back and step into one moment from your life and live it all over again, which one would you choose?
Ruta: Working with The Rat Pack; Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, in Utah. Kanab, Utah. It was so beautiful and so wonderful. I don’t think I realized how lucky and blessed I was at the time. I grew up in Montreal, Canada, where you had to be sixteen to go to the movies. There had been a tremendous fire, and a lot of children were killed and trampled in the process, and therefore they didn’t allow children in the movies. They would make a special exception if Bambi was playing or something like that. Basically, my mother would doll me up in her bandana and her fur coat, and she’d give me lipstick… and there I was at ten or eleven pretending I was sixteen!
I fell madly in love with Rory Calhoun. I thought he was the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen in my life, and to think that I was his leading lady in Gun Hawk some years later, and he and his wife became very good friends.
That was a very special moment.
Jacy: And all of those moments became part of a beautiful career. One in which you’ve been able to do what you love most while making a living at it.
Ruta: Yes, and you know, another moment that was very special was getting to a place in life where I went on a set, and I had a chair with my name on it. Do you have any idea how meaningful that was to a newbie? And it took a while… they had chairs for all of us, but not with our names on them, and to have mine, where I could sit and just go, “Wooohoo!” That was very special.
Jacy: It feels like that would have been an “I’ve made it” moment!
Ruta: Yeah, it was just wonderful.
***
There was something so striking about Ruta’s answer. It was less about the moment itself and more about reflection and the gratitude of having experienced it.
It’s a great reminder for everyone, no matter what field you are in, that sometimes the most meaningful milestones aren’t the ones the world applauds… they’re the quiet, personal confirmations that you’ve arrived somewhere you once only dreamed about.
A chair with your name on it. A childhood crush becomes a co-star. A moment you didn’t even realize was extraordinary until long after it had passed.
Sitting there, listening to Ruta Lee reflect on a life that most would call legendary, I realized that her story isn’t just about fame, it’s about perspective. About recognizing the beauty in moments while you’re in them… and learning to appreciate them when you look back.
And maybe that’s the real takeaway.
Not just to chase the big moments, but to notice them when they happen.
Because one day, those are the moments we’ll return to. I know for sure that I’ll revisit the day I had the privilege of interviewing Ruta Lee. The way we connected, talking about her beautiful life and career. A milestone I will carry with me for years to come.
Visit www.jacydawnvaleras.com. Follow her on Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and Facebook. Listen to Famous With Jacy Dawn Valeras and watch her on Nashville Entertainment Television
