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Fair warning to anyone reading this article: there are no happy endings in this story. Still, when looking back at the life of Debralee Scott, there is much to celebrate as her life was full of both triumph and, unfortunately, tragedy.
Scott first came to prominence in the farcical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. After that, she joined the hit TV show Welcome Back, Kotter, where she played a student named Rosalie, better known to the Sweathogs as “Hotsy Totsy.”
Around the same time, Scott was also making her mark as a really great celebrity contestant on game shows like Password Plus and Match Game. In fact, she is somewhat notorious for a particular moment during an episode of Password Plus that can be found on YouTube. Long before Janet Jackson, Scott practically invented the term “wardrobe malfunction.”
The next notable project Scott appeared in was an ABC sitcom called Angie, where she played the main character’s younger sister, Marie. When Angie debuted, it looked like the show was going to take off and run for years. But then, the producers decided to have Angie (played by Donna Pescow) get married at the beginning of the second season. And wouldn’t you know it, just like that, the show’s ratings began to decline week after week until the network executives gave the show the axe.
After Angie, Scott decided to step away from the camera. She knew the industry well and, at that point, was something of a seasoned veteran. Because of her experience, she decided to help others as a talent agent as they sought fame and fortune in the world of entertainment. It was rewarding work for her, and, like everything else that Scott had ever done, she gave it her all. Then, something unexpected happened.
Scott wasn’t looking for love when she stepped into a bar in 1995 and began visiting with a burly, tattooed, cowboy-hat-wearing feller who told her that he was in law enforcement. But whether or not she was looking for it, love found her. For the next five years, Scott and John Dennis Levi were inseparable.
In 2000, Levi proposed to her, and they began making wedding plans. Unfortunately, their fairy-tale relationship was cut short by one truly horrible day — a day which turned out to be one of the worst days in U.S. history.
Levi was one of those officers who rushed to the Twin Towers to try to aid others, only to find themselves in peril. According to reports, he called Scott twice on that fateful day to tell her what was going on and that he was okay. Sadly, the most important call — the one where he would have told her that he was tired, exhausted, and ready to head home — never happened.
As one might expect, this was an emotional blow that was truly devastating for Scott. Charles Dickens said it best when he wrote, “You think that you’re going to die of a broken heart, but you keep living day after day after terrible day.”
According to journalist and historian Donald Travis Stewart, writing on his Travalanche blog, “Scott’s grief led to a spiral of drinking.” In 2005, her sister, Jeri Lynn, urged her to come and spend time with her, and Scott agreed that it was probably a good idea.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t with her sister long before she unexpectedly slipped into a coma. After some heroic medical measures, Scott seemingly recovered and went home with her sister. But then, just three days later, she went to sleep and never woke up.
There are those skeptics who say that no one ever truly dies of a broken heart, but anecdotal evidence seems to indicate otherwise. We’ve all seen it. A spouse passes away and, before long, their partner follows. Quite simply, they just can’t live in this world apart from the person that they love the most. One can only hope that somewhere, in some way, Scott has now been reunited with her soulmate, who, it turns out, was a true 9/11 hero.
