Minnie Fay in "Hello, Dolly!"
Edra Jean "EJ" Peaker was born in Oklahoma on February 22, 1944, making the youthful Minnie Fay a scant two years younger than the "elder" Dolly when she played the part opposite Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly!

EJ has carved out a modestly successful career in show business ever since her first film appearance in Dolly. EJ has had numerous television parts, including a one episode shot in the 1966 landmark comedy, That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas. EJ even had her own short lived ABC sitcom, That's Life (with Robert Morse) in 1968.  With her Minnie Fay days long behind her, EJ showed up on the 2001 television docudrama, Surviving Gilligan's Island, playing the eccentric (and aged) Mrs. Howell/Natalie Schaefer. Time does indeed fly.

Did you know that both Barbra and EJ Peaker were on Broadway at the same time? In 1964, if you couldn't get a ticket to see Barbra in Funny Girl, you could have gone across the street and possibly seen EJ perform the understudy lead role opposite Robert Redford and Herb Edelman (both later to appear with Barbra in The Way We Were) in Barefoot in the Park.