Famed Photographer of Nudes Bunny Yeager Dead at 85

South Florida's most famous -- and infamous -- photographer of nudes, Bunny Yeager, is dead at 85. Yeager was born in Pennsylvania and found fame in 1955, when she lived with -- and photographed -- pinup model Bettie Page on the Miami River. Her picture of Page -- nude next...

By Chuck Strouse

May 25, 2014

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South Florida's most famous -- and infamous -- photographer of nudes, Bunny Yeager, is dead at 85.

Yeager was born in Pennsylvania and found fame in 1955, when she lived with -- and photographed -- pinup model Bettie Page on the Miami River. Her picture of Page -- nude next to a Christmas Tree, appeared in the 1955 issue of Playboy.

See a slideshow of her work in the Fabulous Bunny Yeager

Yeager sang in Miami nightclubs, lived in Miami Shores, and even taught Sammy Davis Jr. how to shoot.

She dated Joe DiMaggio, who would later marry Marilyn Monroe, and took the famous pictures of Ursula Andress on the beach (at right) that were used to peddle the James Bond movie Dr. No.

She died of congestive heart failure in a North Miami nursing home. The funeral is planned for Faith Lutheran Church and School, 293 Hialeah Dr. at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 1. The Gavlak Gallery on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach currently has a show of her pictures and plans a wall of her work at Art Basel this coming December.

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Chuck Strouse is the former editor in chief of Miami New Times. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes and won dozens of other awards. He is an honors graduate of Brown University and has worked at newspapers including the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times.

Contact: Chuck Strouse

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