Shirley Adrienne Bell Cole (February 21, 1920 – January 12, 2010), also known as Shirley Bell, was an American radio actress; best known as the voice of Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...

.

Born in Chicago's South Side, she grew up in various apartments as her family endured the Depression, and she was first heard on radio at age six. Beginning when she was ten years old, Bell was the primary voice actress of the character Little Orphan Annie from 1930 to 1940.

She quit acting in 1940 and married Irwin Cole. Businessman Cole was born in Chicago, Illinois. The couple raised three daughters in the affluent Chicago suburb Glencoe

Glencoe, Illinois

Glencoe is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 8,723. Glencoe is located on suburban Chicago's North Shore. Glencoe is located within the New Trier High School District. Glencoe is regarded as one of the most affluent suburbs on...

. Her husband died in 1998.

In 1995, she was heard in a reenactment of Little Orphan Annie on Chuck Schaden

Chuck Schaden

Charles Leroy "Chuck" Schaden, born June 29, 1934, is a Chicago-area broadcaster and historian who hosted the program Those Were the Days on local radio from 1970 to 2009. Schaden plays recordings of classic old-time radio shows and reminisces with radio personalities about the early days of...

's Those Were the Days radio show.

She authored Acting Her Age: My Ten Years as a Ten-Year-Old: My Memories as Radio’s Little Orphan Annie (Stinehour Press, 2005). Designed by Susan Cox, the book won Best in Show, Crystal Book Award of Excellence at the Chicago Book and Media Show, and a Silver Award in Fine Editions at the Gold Ink Awards.

She died in Arizona in 2010.