Goodbye, June Allyson

October 7, 1917--July 8, 2006

Gather 'round, children, and you shall hear of a day when there was no cable television, no TiVo, no Netflix, not even a Blockbuster. There was only the Movie of the Week, the Late Show, and maybe the Late, Late Show.

We're talking about my childhood, and many's the time my sisters and I would sit up late on a Friday night, or every night during the summer, to watch the old movies from the 1930's, '40's and '50's. We loved the old black-and-white movies with their old-fashioned values and morals combined with the elegance and glamor of Hollywood's golden years.

June Allyson was a featured player in those years. When I found out this morning that she had passed away at the age of 88, I felt a quick pang of sadness. It's funny, though--I couldn't remember one specific movie in which June Allyson starred. She was just this presence in the the movies of my memory--a raspy-voiced, all-American girl-next-door perky, sparkly-eyed, smiling presence.

Looking now at Wikipedia, I see there are some specific movies I remember--"Little Women," "Till the Clouds Roll By," "The Glenn Miller Story," "My Man Godfrey," to name a few.

She died over the weekend at her home south of Santa Barbara, her husband at her side. And with her goes another little piece of my childhood. Goodbye, June Allyson.

Related Tags: June Allyson, movies, entertainment, Hollywood