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Mary Rodgers | Composer and author, 83

Mary Rodgers, 83, the daughter of Broadway icon Richard Rodgers who found her own fame as composer of the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress and as the author of the body-shifting book Freaky Friday , died Thursday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness, her son Alec Guettel said.

In this April 1, 1943 photo, movie star Jimmy Stewart dances with Mary Rodgers at the "Oklahoma!" fifth birthday party at the Plaza in New York. Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway icon Richard Rodgers, who found her own fame as composer of the 1959 musical "Once Upon a Mattress" and as the author of the book "Freaky Friday," has died. She was 83.
In this April 1, 1943 photo, movie star Jimmy Stewart dances with Mary Rodgers at the "Oklahoma!" fifth birthday party at the Plaza in New York. Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway icon Richard Rodgers, who found her own fame as composer of the 1959 musical "Once Upon a Mattress" and as the author of the book "Freaky Friday," has died. She was 83.Read moreEF / Associated Press, file
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Mary Rodgers, 83, the daughter of Broadway icon Richard Rodgers who found her own fame as composer of the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress and as the author of the body-shifting book Freaky Friday, died Thursday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness, her son Alec Guettel said.

Ms. Rodgers' hit Once Upon a Mattress, a musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fable The Princess and the Pea, made a star of Carol Burnett. A Broadway revival in 1996 starred Sarah Jessica Parker.

Ms. Rodgers was also a children's book author who scored big with Freaky Friday, in which a mother and daughter trade bodies. The book was twice adapted into a Disney movie, most recently in 2003 starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. - AP

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