She danced on Broadway, beyond
The Largo woman kept quiet about her show business past but shared her gift as a volunteer.
By STEPHANIE HAYES, Times Staff Writer
Published November 1, 2007
LARGO - She danced on Broadway, alongside stars like Joel Grey and Patti LuPone. She performed at Radio City Music Hall and in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and on major television shows.
Also, she could play the piano. But not in front of people.
She was too shy.
Karen Fraction-Hamilton was born pigeon-toed. But rather than wear leg braces, she learned to dance.
In college, she tried out for a traveling production of The Wiz. She got the bug.
When directors at auditions nitpicked everything from height to race to weight, she stood confidently. When they asked if she could sing, she'd say, "You have to be able to do it all."
She was tiny, about 115 pounds and all legs. She could swing into a high kick like butter.
On Broadway, Mrs. Fraction-Hamilton performed in the Tap Dance Kid, Cabaret, Anything Goes and Oh, Kay! She toured Europe and Japan with Bob Fosse's Dancin.'
Later in life, she stayed mum about her past. But her friend Paulette Walker Johnson would talk up her friend to others.
Mrs. Fraction-Hamilton would brush it off. "Girl, you don't have to say that."
Husband and wife were always side by side.
Their mothers, close friends, were pregnant at the same time. Mrs. Fraction-Hamilton and Lawrence Hamilton knew each other growing up in Michigan.
Mr. Hamilton's mother prodded him to date the Fractions' daughter. They went to brunch. He had $25. It wasn't enough.
Indignantly, she agreed to pay.
"I walked to the local anytime teller machine and gave her back her money," he said.
He remembers watching her on stage, awestruck at her presence. At home, they teased each other. They were both opinionated and could butt heads, but they didn't fight, he said. They were too easygoing.
Almost 20 years ago, they got married. The wedding program said, "Today, I marry my friend."
The thought of moving to Florida was odd. But Mrs. Fraction-Hamilton was in her 30s, old in dancer age. And her husband, an executive, had a job offer here. In 1991, they came to Largo.
"I think she was more than pleasantly surprised," said Mr. Hamilton, 50. "She had to admit that her career would not have taken off as rapidly as it did if she didn't move."
She got a major role on the Nickelodeon series My Brother and Me and commuted to Orlando to film. She appeared on shows including SeaQuest 2032, Sheena and Walker, Texas Ranger.
She blushed when people asked for autographs.
She volunteered at Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg, substitute teaching, filming recitals and coaching kids. She'd use her connections to bring in Broadway entertainers.
She wanted kids to know they had a chance.
She never expected the breast cancer to be final.
She wouldn't even discuss a funeral with her husband. "Why are we even talking about this?" she said to him.
But recently, she took a turn for the worst.
At home Monday night, she whispered a message to her daughter, Lauren, 14. She saw her 9-year-old son, Lawrence William, get his birthday gift - sports decorations in his bedroom.
The family said a prayer and went to bed. In the middle of the night, she died in her sleep. She was 49.
Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or 727 893-8857.
Biography
Karen Fraction-Hamilton
Born: Feb. 15, 1958.
Died: Oct. 30, 2007.
Survivors: mother, Constance Fraction; brother, William Morris; husband, Lawrence Hamilton; children, Lauren and Lawrence William Hamilton.
Services: Mass at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, St. Matthew Catholic Church, Largo. Donations to the Karen Fraction-Hamilton Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Arts, 7542 Cumberland Court, Largo, 33777, or the Gulf Coast Oncology Foundation, 1201 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg, 33705.