NEW YORK: The woman Richard Burton left to marry Elizabeth Taylor has died.
Theater producer and nightclub founder Sybil Christopher was 83.
The Bay Street Theater on Long Island posted an obituary for Christopher on its website. The New York Times reported she died Thursday in New York City.
The Welsh-born Christopher was Sybil Burton when Richard Burton, her first husband, left her for Taylor in 1963.
She left California for New York, where she opened a nightclub in 1965 with backing from famous friends like Julie Andrews and Leonard Bernstein.
The club, called Arthur, became a celebrity hangout and turned Christopher into a post-divorce success story.
In 1966, she married Akron native Jordan Christopher, the lead singer of the club’s house band. Christopher, whose real name was Jordan Zankoff, was a 1959 Buchtel High School graduate who performed in the Fascinations, an Akron doo-wop group.
The couple returned several times to Akron, including serving as godparents at the baptism of Christopher’s niece at St. Thomas Eastern Orthodox Church.
Sybil Christopher founded the Bay Street Theater in 1991 with two partners and was its artistic director for 22 years.
She is survived by three daughters, including actress Kate Burton.