North Carolinians of note Ava Gardner From Grabtown to Tinseltown

By Alyssa Bailey “Movies may not have been a dream of mine,” she wrote, “but when I com- , 1938: Movie star Henry pared the idea of a secretarial job ... Fonda sits with a date at a club. They with the chance of going to Hollywood chat as a well-dressed girl approaches. and breathing the same air as Clark She can’t be older than 16 with her Gable ... well, the choice was not hard fresh face, striking green eyes and dark to make.” Courtesy of the Ava Gardner Museum curls. career progressed while his sank. They She’s timid and star-struck. When she Rising star divorced in 1957, but Gardner’s hold sees Fonda, she drops her purse. He In Hollywood, Gardner worked as an on lasted until his death. Sis- helps her pick it up and gives her an extra. She caught the eye of star Mickey ter Bappie said he sent Gardner a huge autograph. His date tells the girl: “You Rooney, who called her for weeks until bouquet of flowers on her birthday ev- should go to Hollywood.” she went out with him. ery year, according to Doris Cannon’s She does. Eight years later, she stars The pair wed quietly in January 1942. biography, “Grabtown Girl.” in “The Whistle Stop,” her first lead Gardner characterized their union as Gardner was ready to leave Holly- role. She will appear in more than 60 a marriage of two youths unaware of wood after the divorce. She moved to films and TV shows, acting alongside what marriage meant. Rooney, who Spain for 10 years and then . , and Clark continued living like a bachelor, led Though decades of heavy drinking Gable. With three marriages to celebri- Gardner to seek a divorce 17 months and smoking weakened her health, ties, she will captivate audiences with later. The day the divorce came “was Gardner continued to make films in the torrid affairs on and off screen. only made sadder,” Gardner wrote, 1970s and small TV roles in the 1980s. But that night she is Ava Gardner, the when her mother died of uterine can- In 1986, Gardner suffered two strokes flustered farm girl from North Caro- cer that morning. that left her paralyzed. “Sometimes, I lina, getting her first taste of the movie Gardner moved up on the MGM lot, think it would be better to be born sick business. playing small roles in movies such as and miserable than to know a healthy, “Maisie Goes to Reno.” She auditioned good life and have it snatched away in Humble beginnings for bigger parts, happy “they even two weeks,” she wrote to a friend in a Gardner was born in Grabtown, N.C., thought of me,” she wrote to a friend. letter reprinted by Cannon. a farming community near Smithfield, In 1946, Gardner made her star turn Four years later, on Jan. 25, 1990, on Dec. 24, 1922. The youngest of sev- as Kitty Collins in ’s Gardner died of pneumonia. She was en children, she helped her family in “The Killers.” But her luck in films 67. She was buried in Sunset Memo- the tobacco fields. The family struggled came with another luckless marriage. rial Park in Smithfield, where the Ava in the Great Depression and moved to She divorced her second husband, Gardner museum opened in 1996. Newport News, Va., after losing their bandleader , that same year. In Gardner’s funeral program, Can- Grabtown property. They had married one year before. non would compare the actress’ career Though Gardner and her family were with her performance at age 6 in the in Virginia, some of her grown siblings The big time first-grade operetta at Brogden School. went north. Sister Beatrice “Bappie” Gardner’s dream of acting alongside “The curtains have closed,” Cannon Gardner moved to New York City and Gable came in 1947’s “.” wrote, “but the applause will continue married photographer Larry Tarr. Tarr Gardner’s love life garnered her through the years.” saw potential in Gardner during her greater fame when she met singer Gardner, Ava. Ava: My Story. summer visits. He hung her picture in . They married in 1951, 72 Cannon, Doris. Grabtown Girl: Gardner’s North Caro- his Fifth Avenue store window. hours after Sinatra received a divorce lina Childhood and her Enduring Ties to Home. It caught the eye of a Loews Theaters from his wife Nancy. Biography: www.tcm.com/index.jsp and legal clerk, who, Gardner wrote, boast- Gardner’s acting career continued to Star of the Month profile: www.tcm.com/thismonth/ ed of his MGM studio connection to blossom. In 1953, she won a Best Ac- article/?cid=345152 win girls. But Tarr took his suggestion tress Academy Award nomination for Ava Gardner Museum, http://avagardner.org to send Gardner’s photos. her role alongside Kelly and Gable in Ava Gardner’s funeral program, NC Collection, UNC- MGM was interested, so Gardner, “.” CH then at Atlantic Christian College in Profile written by a student in the School Wilson, N.C., did a screen test for the The later years of Journalism and Mass Communication, studio and was offered a seven-year Gardner’s marriage to Sinatra was UNC-CH. Provided by the N.C. Press contract. She would make $50 a week. tumultuous. He was jealous that her Foundation, www.ncpress.com.