Carole Lombard
On this day in 1942, actress Carole Lombard died in a plane crash at the age of 33. At the time of the tragic accident, Lombard was returning home from a World War II war bond tour.
Lombard was born Janice Alice Peters on October 6, 1908 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At the age of 12, she landed her first on screen role in the silent film, A Perfect Crime. By 16, she had signed her first studio contract and began working under the name “Carole Lombard.”
Known for her screwball comedies, Lombard became one of the highest paid stars of the 1930s. In 1939, she married actor Clark Gable, whom she first met while filming No Man of Her Own in 1932. After the U.S. entered World War II, Lombard embarked on a war bond tour and raised over $2 million. Sadly, on her flight home from the tour, her plane crashed near the top of Potosi Mountain just outside of Las Vegas. All passengers and crew members died in the crash, including Lombard’s mother and Gable’s press agent, Otto Winkler. Devastated by his wife’s death, Gable joined the U.S. Army Air Forces.
Lombard and her mother were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. After Gable’s death in 1960, he was also interred beside her.
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Image: Wikimedia Commons
Source: Geni.com
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