Gone is the Beautiful Star

True to her screen name, the late Linda Estrella was, indeed a Beautiful Star or Magandang Bituin, as translated in English and Pilipino. Very charming and accommodating, too.

Four or five years ago, this columnist remembers meeting Linda at a dinner held at the Vera Perez Garden in Quezon City, hosted by Sampaguita matriarch Nene Vera Perez and her daughter Marichu VP Maceda. I knew Linda was a classically-trained soprano and so, along with Mama Nene and Manay Ichu, I requested her for a song. She obliged, singing the Platters hit of the ’50s, My Prayer.

What a still beautiful voice, buong-buo pa, despite the years.

Linda said My Prayer was some kind of theme song of her and husband Dr. Adriano Agana, who died in 1992. They were longtime US residents.

Manay Ichu called Linda Estrella ‘Tita Conching’ her real name being Consuelo Vera Rigotti (of Italian descent). Linda and Mama Nene were first cousins.

This columnist also remembers meeting Linda’s daughter, the former child superstar Tessie Agana in the late ’70s with her husband Dr. Rudy Jao at a party hosted by my mother, Doña Soledad Lirio Dolor. Dr. Jao was stockholder of Medical Center Manila, where my mother was chairman of the board.

The Beautiful Star left behind many a memorable film, mostly circa the ’50s. She died Feb. 18 in Hobart, Indiana, at 84. — RKC