Scuba Diving club,
Southern California
Sea Sabres
PHONE RECORDING
VOICE DIES
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July 28, 2003 -- Jane Barbe, whose voice was familiar to
millions of telephone users across the country who ever dialed a wrong number
or had to "Please listen to the following options" in a voice-mail
system, died July 18 in Roswell, Ga., of complications from cancer. She was 74.
Barbe was the queen
of telephone recordings, whose voice was heard an estimated 40 million times a
day in the 1980s and early 1990s on everything from automated time and weather
messages to hotel wake-up calls.
She was heard on 90
percent of "intercept messages" - the recording played when something
is wrong with a phone number - and 60 percent of automated time and temperature
calling programs.
During her unusual
40-year career she articulated immortal lines, including, "I'm sorry, the
number you have dialed is no longer in service" and "Please press 1
for more options."
Barbe is survived
by her husband, John, a daughter, Susan Stubin of Passaic, N.J.; a son, David,
of Athens, Ga.; and seven grandchildren.
AP
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Posted July 28, 2003