Clara Blandick as Auntie Em

This image "reprinted by permission,
Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles,
CA © all rights reserved."

Clara Blandick, died the morning of April 15, 1962. Ms Blandick had not worked in the entertainment field for about 10 years. She was 81 years old when she took her own life. Her attorney told newspapers and friends that she was in so much pain and was losing her sight that she just could not go on.

Clara Blandick was a long time veteran of both stage and screen. She was at one time under contract to the Twentieth Century-Fox Studio. At that point she had 25 years in show business and had made 110 films to date.

Ms. Blandick is best known for two roles. She played Aunt Polly in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and the beloved Auntie Em in Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz. One note of interest Is that she made one film called People are Funny as the grandmother of Jack Haley.

Clara Blandick is the archetypical of the aunt that everyone would like to have. She will truly be remembered in a warm place in our hearts. There really was for Dorothy "no place like home."

This image "reprinted by permission, The Munchkins of Oz,
Cumberland House, Nashville TN © 1996 all rights reserved."

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