On June 12, 1980, The Daily Evening Item reported on Marblehead’s Rita Sullivan, who had always dreamed of performing on the stage but never thought it would happen so quickly.
Sullivan enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a dance major. She was the only freshman in the school’s history to be a member of the University Dancers and the only first-year student to participate in the senior program.
Sullivan’s mother had told her about a chorus line to hold auditions.
“My mother (also Rita) told me about it and said, ‘It’s there if you want it.’ She never pushed me,” Sullivan said.