After years of avoiding the stage, Bobbie Eakes recently came off of a smash show in Amsterdam. “I thought that it would not matter to me if I never sang again,” she begins. “I thought, ‘I’m going to take a break,’ and it was fine. I had that chapter in my life and I don’t really mind if I don’t do anything anymore. But then, people started asking me to do different things like charity events, which you really want to do, and I was shocked. Your voice is like a muscle, and it can atrophy. I got depressed about it and thought I lost it and I will never get it back. But people kept asking me to do things and then I thought I was being selfish because if people want you to do something, think of it as something for them, not something for yourself. So, when my friend in Holland said, ‘Do you want to do this show?’ I said okay and I was working really hard singing every day, and I’ve been doing that for over a year and I was ready! I really had to work a lot harder because I had let it go for a lot longer, but my voice is back and I am so happy. Now I’m keeping up my exercises because I never ever want to get in that position again.”
Eakes wound up performing abroad with fellow crooner Jeffrey Schenk. “Let’s go back a few years,” she states of how their partnership came about. “Jeff Trachta [ex-Thorne, B&B] and I did lots of concerts because of BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL, and not just the Netherlands but all over Europe and Australia and South Africa. When we both left the show, that sort of waned and we went on to other things. Jeff is still super-busy as an entertainer and I’ve been doing some acting, but not so much singing except for some clubs in Palm Springs. But there was a Dutch performer who contacted me and said, ‘Would you like to come back over and do a show with me?’ and I said, ‘I’d love to,’ and this was a couple of years ago and we finally just made it happen. The way I make things happen is book the date and then worry about it and lo and behold, it happened! We had never sung together, but I’d heard him on the Internet, and he had heard my music. I knew we were going to blend well together and we also did some solo music. It was a terrific show, and it was a nice reunion with fans who came out to see me from all those years ago. I had people come who I haven’t seen in years, from countries like Iceland and Germany and France and Italy. All these sweet fans flew in. Everything went perfectly. I was really pleased.”
Eakes also received a lot of support from Trachta. “He is such an amazing guy,” she smiles. “I love Jeff. He’s been my friend for years and years. He is like a brother, and for a time, we lived across the street from each other in Savannah. In fact, he was the one who picked out our house. That was, like, the third house he found for me. Every time I hear his voice, it gives me such a warm feeling. He is one of the wisest people I know, especially when it comes to building up your confidence when you’re nervous and you haven’t done something in a while.”
Eakes has continued acting, most recently appearing in the critically acclaimed miniseries GEORGE & TAMMY. “I got to be a blonde!” she enthuses. “When I read the sides [for the role of Nan Smith], she reminded me very much of Krystal [from ALL MY CHILDREN]. I got the part and when I went to the set for a fitting, I was sitting by myself. It was during Covid and everybody stayed away from each other but I was sitting in the lunch tent and Abe Sylvia came up to me. He created this and also wrote and directed and produced one of my favorite shows of all time, which is DEAD TO ME. I was thrilled when I saw he was attached to this, not to mention Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon and all these other great people. But I was a huge fan of Abe’s and when he came up to me and he said, ‘I just want you to know I saw your tape and I knew you got this. You understood.’ What a compliment! We were filming in Wilmington, North Carolina, and when I left the soundstage that last night, I said to myself, ‘You will never quit doing what you love,’ and I love it so much. When I was living in Palm Springs I was telling myself, ‘You don’t need to do that anymore. I’m going to move on to the next chapter,’ but I’m so glad I’m still doing it!”
But daytime is never far from her mind. “I have so many stories,” she laughs of her B&B stint and her late co-star, Darlene Conley (ex-Sally). “She was always so gracious and inviting all the castmates to her box seats at the [Hollywood] Bowl. She had the dressing room next to me and you could hear everything. One day, I was taking a nap on my sofa and I could hear her talking on the phone about her car to a mechanic, and the minute she got him on the phone, she didn’t say, ‘Hello, this is Darlene Conley,’ she said [with a flourish] ‘Hello, baby, this is Sally Spectra.’ She really turned it on. She loved being Sally Spectra. She was one of the greats. She even came to Georgia for my wedding in 1992. I often say it feels like she’s still here because she was such a large presence, so I feel like she’s not gone. She will always be in my heart.”
Eakes is also grateful for her role as AMC’s Krystal, which netted her two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2006 and 2010. “When I read the sides, I knew I could do it,” she recalls. “We sent them a tape and they flew me out to New York to test with a number of other actresses. Everybody had to read with Michael Knight [ex-Tad; Martin, GH], which was a pleasure. I went all out and went broad Southern fancy redneck. She was such a great character, and I was so lucky to be able to rebrand myself.”
As for her favorite Pine Valley memory, it was interacting with a celebrity fan of the soap. “I was thrilled to get the two Emmy nominations, but the biggest compliment or accolade was one day on the set, when I was pretty new. I was doing this comic scene and I didn’t know it but Carol Burnett [ex-Verla, AMC] was in the wings. She was visiting and there were a few of us actors on the set and when she came out with the producers, we all stood in a receiving line. She went down the line to say hello to everybody and when she got to me, I was, like, the second to the last person in line. The only thing she said to any of us besides hello was to me, and she said, ‘You are such a great addition to the show.’ I almost died. I was so tongue-tied, but I am going to take that with me to the grave as one of the highest compliments as an actor. I really wish I could meet her again and tell her how much that meant to me.”
The actress still keeps in touch with her fans and the goings-on on screen. “B&B is still on the air and thriving, and that helps keep you in their mind’s eye,” she notes. “I love that they had a young Sally Spectra [Courtney Hope] there and she’s on Y&R now. I think she is just fantastic — and I think she looks like she could be related to Darlene. I thought it was fantastic casting, and so I’m glad the Spectra name lives on. Thanks to social media, I hear from a lot of people far and wide and I can only say that I’m grateful and I truly appreciate all of it.”
Losing Leslie
Eakes and her husband, David, worked with Leslie Jordan many times over the years and became friends, so it was a shock for them to learn of his passing in 2022. “I’m going to cry,” she says. “Leslie came to everything he could to support me and to support David. I saw him in March of 2020 in L.A. right before we moved to Savannah. He came to see This Side Of Crazy by Del Shores and after, he took pictures with all my friends who were there. He was so giving to his fans. We did a play years ago called Southern Baptist Sissies. There were many iterations of that play but this was the final one and they actually filmed it and released it. He was on the top of the world at the time of his death. He had all these projects going on. It’s just so sad. He’s always had a great career, but ever since Covid and he started doing all those wonderful videos, it took him to an even higher level and more things started happening from there. He was an enormous talent and is greatly missed.”
Just The Facts
Birthday: July 25
Birthplace: Warner Robins, GA
Sister Act: Is the youngest of five siblings, all girls.
Wedded Bliss: Married to actor David Steen since July 4, 1992. “My husband just did a movie in L.A. in which he played four different characters, which is going to be an amazing showcase for him.”
There She Is: Eakes was Miss Georgia in the 1982 Miss America pageant and sang for the talent portion.
On The Record: Along with Jeff Trachta (ex-Thorne, B&B), their compact discs, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL Duets I and II, went double-platinum in Europe.
Salem’s Lot: In 2001, she did a guest spot on DAYS playing the Marchioness of La Cienega.
