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The 'perfect wife'

June Allyson had a wholesomeness that seemed to make her the ideal sweetheart and wife, the woman World War II veterans wanted most to come home to.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 11, 2006

LOS ANGELES - June Allyson, the sunny, raspy-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter Pamela Allyson Powell said Monday. She was 88.

Ms. Allyson died Saturday (July 8, 2006) at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side. She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness.

During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blond and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supportive and unthreatening.

With typical wonderment, Ms. Allyson expressed surprise in a 1986 interview that she had ever become a movie star: "I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don't sing like Judy Garland. I don't dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they'd take me home to meet Mom."

Ms. Allyson's real life belied the sunshiny image she presented in films of the '40s and '50s. As she revealed in her 1982 autobiography, she had an alcoholic father and was raised by a single mother. Her "ideal marriage" to actor-director Dick Powell was beset with frustrations.

After Powell's cancer death in 1963, she battled breakdowns, alcoholism and a disastrous second marriage. She credited her recovery to Ashrow, her third husband, a children's dentist who became a nutrition expert.

Born Eleanor Geisman on Oct. 7, 1917, Ella was 6 when her alcoholic father left. Her mother worked as a telephone operator and restaurant cashier. At 8, the girl was bicycling when a dead tree branch fell on her. Several bones were broken and doctors said she would never walk again. Months of physical therapy helped her to defy that diagnosis.

After graduating from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, Ella was inspired by Ginger Rogers' dancing with Fred Astaire. Fully recovered, she tried out for a chorus job in a Broadway show, Sing Out the News. The choreographer gave her a job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month.

MGM signed her to a contract, and she appeared in small roles. Then in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), her winsome beauty and bright personality connected with U.S. servicemen.

After her film career ended in the late '50s, Ms. Allyson starred on television as hostess and occasional star of The Dupont Show with June Allyson. In later years she appeared on TV shows such as Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 01:38:39]