Peggy Ann Garner

Actress Peggy Ann Garner was was born Feb. 3, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. Her father was an English-born attorney, William H. Garner, who served as a U. S. Army officer during World War II. Virginia, her determined mother, got Peggy into summer stock and modeling before she was six. Estranged from her husband, Virginia moved with her daughter to Hollywood a year later.

In June 1944 the New York Times reported that Garner would star in an adaptation of the Nelia Gardner White short story "The Little Horse" for 20th Century-Fox with André Daven producing. When the movie finally went before the cameras Connie Marshall was cast in the role of Kitty, and the movie was retitled Sentimental Journey (1946).

Peggy was cast in several films before gaining fame as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).

No one knows the location of the Oscar that she received on March 7, 1946. This award was presented to her by Bob Hope.

After years of separation and estrangement, her parents were divorced in 1947. Peggy, who had a falling out with her mother, went to court to have her father appointed as her guardian. By the time she reached 20, she had moved from Hollywood to New York to try her talents on Broadway.

On November 5, 1949 Ed Sullivan reported that Garner was approached by the producers of the Broadway show "Texas, Li'l Darlin'" to replace Lenore Lonergan in the role of Melissa Tatum while the show was in out-of-town tryouts. Garner later declined and the role was assumed by Kate Murtagh. Instead Garner took the advice of Elia Kazan and signed to do the straight dramatic play "The Man." Kazan felt Garner would benefit from working with director Martin Ritt.

She spent much of the 1950s living and working in New York, studying with the Actors Studio.

She appeared on stage with Dorothy Gish in The Man in 1950, A Royal Family in 1951 and Home is the Hero in 1954.

Ed Sullivan gave her away when she married Richard Hayes on February 22, 1951. Her parents were absent from the event.

In October 1952 Garner, along with Cloris Leachman and Elinor Randel, was reported to be in consideration for the role of Mary Craigin in the film Main Street to Broadway (1953). Mary Murphy played the role in the finished film.

She also was in the road company of Bus Stop in 1955.

She received Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award for Woman of the Year in 1956. Her film career began to fade as she grew older, but she did stage and television work as well as a few other films, never recapturing her childhood fame.

Daughter Catherine Ann Salmi died in 1995 of premature heart disease at age 38. Peggy's strong-willed mother, Virginia Garner Swainston, had outlived both her only child and her only grandchild.