Jane Darwell - Palmyra, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 39° 47.240 W 091° 31.388
15S E 626457 N 4405196
Movie star, plus. Born Jane Woodward, changed her name to avoid shame for her family because she was an actress.
Waymark Code: WMNY8Z
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/23/2015
Views: 6
Marker Erected by: Palmyra Historical Society.
County of Marker: Marion County.
Location of Marker: 1425 S. Main St., Palmyra.
Marker Text:
Home of Jane Darwell
Silent Movie & T-V Actress
Portrayed "MA JOAD" in
John Steinbeck's
Grapes of Wrath
Home Built in 1869American actress Jane Darwell was the daughter of a Missouri railroad executive. She was born here, October 15, 1879 as Patti Woodard. She passed away (of heart failure) on August 13, 1967 and is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.
Despite her father's disapproval, she spent most of her youth acting in circuses, opera troupes and stock companies, making her film debut in 1912. Even in her early thirties, Darwell specialized in formidable "grande dame" roles, usually society matrons or strict maiden aunts. Making an easy transition to talking pictures, Darwell worked primarily in small character parts (notably as governesses and housekeepers in the films of Shirley Temple) until 1939, when her role as the James Brothers' mother in Jesse James began a new career direction—now she was most often cast as indomitable frontierswomen, unbending in the face of hardship and adversity.