Posted on 07/10/2006 2:45:35 PM PDT by lunarbicep
June Allyson, the sunny, cracked-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter Pamela Allyson Powell said Monday. She was 88.
Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side, Powell said in a telephone interview.
She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness, Powell said.
During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blonde and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supporting and unthreatening.
"I had the most wonderful last meeting with June at her house in Ojai. We had gotten lost in the car. She told me: 'I could wait for you forever.' We were such dear friends. I will miss her," lifelong friend Esther Williams said.
With typical wonderment, Allyson expressed surprise in a 1986 interview that she had ever become a movie star:
"I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don't sing like Judy Garland. I don't dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they'd take me home to meet Mom."
June Allyson was one of my favorites. Always clean, sweet and so very likeable.
A different more pleasant time she represented.
I thought she was really something in the Glenn Miller story. Hate to hear of this but we all have to go sometime. RIP.
Rest in Peace
I couldn't have described better than she did why she was the perfect wife in so many great roles.
If only there were just a few like her in film today.
I'll say a prayer for this nice lady. Rest in peace, June.
Always used to confuse her with Barbara Bel Geddes.
If everyone must die sometime, What's keeping that traitor Harry Belafonte alive? I would trade 1000 Banana Boat Harrys for just one June Allison.
I always liked her. She was real American.
If you haven't been to Ojai, I suggest you go. It's a nice little town. Hot in the summer.
I remember having a crush on her too.
You were too young for her. I was only 25 years her junior.
"...A different more pleasant time she represented..."
Indeed. Back in the days when Americans didn't jump to immediately blame other Americans for the ills of the world. Patriotism and decency was expected from all. Parents had a clue of what their kids were doing.
~ Blue Jays ~
You working the obits today?
Part of evil elitist Hollywood spewing out its perverted filth...
I met her about 10 years ago. Such a nice lady. I live in the hometown of actor Jimmy Stewart. She was at the Jimmy Stewart museum. I loved "The Glenn Miller Story".
Well....that Depends...
Unfortunately, what she and James Stewart were in that movie---through no fault of their own---was a bowdlerised version of Helen and Glenn Miller. (It only begins with the fact that "Little Brown Jug" was not just some brand-new entry in the Miller book that he planned to play on a radio broadcast as a surprise for her that ended up being played in his memory. Miller had had a hit with the song before he went into the Army Air Force, whether or not he really did hate the song as the film also portrayed. The good news is that the Miller film wasn't quite the worst bowdlerisation of a musician's story---for my money, the top honour is a dead heat between the films made of the lives of Benny Goodman and Red Nichols, and there's something rotten to be said about the films made about Gene Krupa and the Dorsey brothers, too.)
But that said, now June Allyson returns to her true love. Dick Powell has been waiting for her for years. Here's to the last surviving co-founder of Four Star Productions, a lady with class and understated grace, reunited to the true love of her life.
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