What many people do not know about Ellen Demming, is that besides her
work on the Guiding Light, she held membership in SAG and Actors
Equity. In addition to playing Meta, she did Summer Stock, regional
theatre, commercial work, and she starred off-Broadway in "Family
Portrait", in 1959, at the Seven Arts Center. Brooks Atkinson, of the
New York Times, said this of her performance as Mary, Mother of Jesus:
"Her characterization has pride, modesty, and great delicacy of
feeling."
In an odd coincidence, Ellen died in Springfield Hospital, which shares
the name of the fictional town the soap opera Guiding Light is set in,
where Ellen played Meta Bower for 21 years.