When Georgina Stanfield made her way on stage Saturday night – sporting loose language, tattered stockings and a swinging bottle of booze – the crowd roared with applause. It may be the last time the 82-year-old England-born actress will step into the role as the beloved Old Kate in Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s record-breaking production, &#8220Gold in the Hills,” performed in Vicksburg since 1936.

It’s a role she herself has defined over the nearly 40 years she has performed in the 1890s melodrama, and she, along with hundreds who have booed the villain and cheered the hero, will never forget it.

&#8220I love it – I love the part,” she said. &#8220It’s so different – I don’t have to do it perfect.”

But, she does do it perfectly to many who have seen her perform time and time again – from the moment she takes the stage in Act II, set in Big Mike’s Bowery Barroom, to her famous can-can dance, which ends with a flash of her heart-patched bloomers.

&#8220I love playing with her,” said Amy Bedner, who starred as the play’s heroine, Nellie, a role she’s held off-and-on for the past eight or nine years. &#8220She gives us that extra boost. We have to be on, because that’s what she expects.”

Stanfield, a wisp of a woman, was seriously burned by a space heater in her Vicksburg home six months ago. Two-thirds of her back received at least third-degree burns, and she was taken to the Orlando Burn Unit in Florida near the home of her daughter, Kim Gabriel.

&#8220The doctor said there was less than a 50 percent chance of her walking out of there,” Gabriel said – but she did.

Then came news of another blaze – the one that damaged the Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s Parkside Playhouse on June 26. Stanfield said she learned of the fire – two weeks before the 71st season of &#8220Gold” – from phone calls.

&#8220I said, ‘I don’t ever think I’ll get to play Old Kate,’” she said.

But she did return to the city where she’s lived most of her life and did appear in the role – moved to the stage at Vicksburg High – as the VTG rallies from the setback.

Starting today, her home will be packed up and she will move to Florida to live closer to her family after this visit. She will be leaving with some good memories.

&#8220I was not ever planning on playing, but they asked me to play,” she said. &#8220It’s nice to feel I wasn’t forgotten.”

To honor Stanfield, several past performers returned to delight in the presence of their old friend and fellow actor. Dorothy Brasfield, who played piano for &#8220Gold” for the past 35 years, said she has since &#8220retired,” but returned when she heard Stanfield would be on stage.

&#8220I came out for her. She’s an inspiration to all of us,” she said. &#8220I wanted to come back and be with her and play with her.”

Stanfield is no stranger to theater. She first took the stage in her hometown of Grimsby, England, in Lincolnshire, where she modeled, acted and danced at different venues, including the London Palladium.

&#8220I’ve been on the stage all my life,” she said.

It was only natural for her to join the local theater group when she and her family moved to Vicksburg in the early 1960s. It all started when she took her daughter to auditions at the theater, then on Bowmar Avenue.

&#8220She played one of the dwarves and I started sewing shoes. The next thing I knew, I was in my first play,” Stanfield said. &#8220I went all the time after that. I played on the boat – I was hooked.”

&#8220The boat” in those days was the steamer Sprague, a giant sternwheeler moored at City Front. Its stage was the home for &#8220Gold” for 25 years until 1974 when it, too, burned.

&#8220They all went running when they heard about the fire,” Gabriel said. &#8220People sat on the wall and watched it burn while it was sitting in water.”

When she wasn’t performing on stage, Stanfield worked for 29 years at United Cleaners on Cherry Street. She also ran her own cleaning business. But, the theater is where she spent her nights, she said. Her first &#8220Gold” performance was as Lizzie the housekeeper in 1972.

Gabriel, who attended her mother’s last performance with her children and other family and friends, said it’s her mother’s spirit that people have come to see at &#8220Gold” all these years.

&#8220She’s gentle and caring and has a very open spirit – she’s always welcomed everybody as an equal,” she said. &#8220When you touch somebody like that,” people notice.

VTG honored Stanfield with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award after the production. VTG’s president Terry Welch presented her with a plaque, the first in a series to honor past performers. The board will honor recipients on a wall in Parkside Playhouse once cleanup is completed and the Guild can move back to its home base.

Stanfield will always be remembered as the first, though.

&#8220It’s because of Georgina. We knew she was coming back and thought it was a perfect time to start,” Welch said. &#8220We wanted to honor her – she deserves it.”

When Stanfield accepted the award, her words summed up decades of performances.

&#8220Thank you everybody for making my night,” she said.