When you have time to read LAEXTRA -

LAEXTRA is what used to be the 2nd section of the LA Times. For awhile it was called "California" and "San Gabriel Valley." Anyway, it contains the obituaries - which I frequently peruse. I often find items of interest. This last week, I found three items of interest.

The first item was a rather long column obit on Frances Curran. Turns out it was the same Frances Curran Alice and I used to babysit for. She hired us for every Saturday night - she said she'd go out regardless - and go out she did - every Saturday night!! It was great to have guaranteed income.

She had 6 children - 5 girls and one boy. Each girl's name began with Mary, but only the first daughter was called Mary Jeanne. The rest just went by their second name - and all those started with a J. Her last child was a boy - named Tom!

The summer of 1960, she worked at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles when John Kennedy was nominated. I babysat for her that week. She'd go out each day dressed in red, white, and blue - with a straw boater to match!! In retrospect, it seems pretty amazing that a young mother with 6 small children took off for a week to root for John Kennedy - she was definitely before her time!

Upon reflection, it seems like babysitting for 6 kids - who were all quite close in age - might have been a lot of work, but I mostly have fond memories of babysitting there. She must have trained them all well!

Many years ago, I noticed the name Curran in the LA Times sports pages. The husband of a good friend of mine was a sports writer there, so I asked him about the byline. Turns out the young woman was an intern - he asked her about her family and lo and behold it was the same Joanna Curran I had babysat. So we met for breakfast and had a good time hashing over the changes the years had brought.

Why is it so nice to re-connect with the past - and the people we knew then?

The second item was about the death of Carlos Moorhead - a state assemblyman who represented the part of the San Fernando Valley that we lived in. When I was in high school, we had to write a letter to our assemblyman - so I wrote one lamenting the lack of enough trash cans on Chatsworth. Lo and behold Mr. Moorhead wrote me back - and said my suggestion was a good one - and so more trash cans were provided!

I've been an activist for a long time!!

The third item was an obit on Judy Lewis - the "illegitimate" daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable. I suppose there are lots of "illegitimate" children of famous people out there, but this story seemed especially poignant. (I put the word in quotes because I don't think children are "illegitmate" - sounds so pejorative. I think mostly their parents are illegitimate - no quotation marks needed!)

Clark Gable and Judy Lewis

Apparently Clark Gable and Loretta Young were working on the set of Call of the Wild when the assignation and subsequent pregnancy occurred. Ms. Young went to Europe and returned to give birth in a secret house in Venice, California. She then placed the baby in an orphanage and then 18 months later made a big show of "adopting" her!

Loretta Young and Clark Gable in Call of the Wild.

When Judy Lewis was 15, Clark Gable came to visit - the story recounted that she later wrote in her autobiography that, "he bent down and, cupping my face in his two big hands, kissed me lightly on the forehead." That was the only meeting she had with him - and he did not acknowledge her as his daughter. Her own mother did not acknowledge it to her until she was a young adult. Judy Lewis said, when she wrote her memoir, Uncommon Knowledge, "I had to write this book. I don't think anyone knows what it's like not to be acknowledged by your own parents."

What was really poignant to me though was the statement at the end. The article concluded that she said that whenever she watched Gable's loving scenes with his on-screen daughter in Gone With the Wind, she cried. "It's very sad to me," she told the London Telegraph in 2002, "because he's so dear with her. I pretend it's me."

Since I'm a big GWTW fan - and the novel emphasizes how much Rhett Butler loved his daughter - and in fact all of Scarlett's children - it is easy to see how this woman could feel saddened each time she saw the film and thought about her own situation.

It's a lot of drama, I know, but it was touching to me. I work with kids - and many of them are not acknowledged by both parents. I often have students who do not know their biological fathers - some of them are pretty cavalier about it - which is even sadder.

What a world we live in!