Actress Caren Marsh_Doll (Standin for Judy Garland in "Wizard of Oz" )1919-2012

[jlp]

Caren Marsh (April 6, 1919 - January 2, 2012)



At MGM Studios in the 1930s there was a handful of extras who would
jump in at any moment to take over a scene for one of its various
stars. One of which was the late Caren Marsh. She was born on April 6,
1919 in Hollywood, CA the daughter of a well to do Methodist minister.
She was also the older sister of actress Dorothy Morris (1922 - 2011).
Following her graduation from Hollywood High School in 1937 she began
her career as a dance and radio actress. In 1939 she began her career
as a dancer and stand in for Judy Garland and was a dance stand-in for
The Wizard of Oz (1939) as well as Ziegfeld Girl (1941). She had seven
titles to her credit in the 1940s, some of which included Secrets of a
Sorotiy Girl (1945), Navajo Kid (1945), Night and Day (1946), and
Smash Up: Story of a Woman (1947). She made her last film appearance
in the Errol Flynn motion picture The Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
On July 13, 1949 Marsh was one of 14 survivors who lived through the
Standard Airlines Crash in which 35 passengers and crew members died.
Following her miraclous survival, and avoiding having a foot
amputated, she spent the remainder of her life in Palm Springs, CA
where she was active both in the Methodist church and doing monthly
volunteer work at the Stroke Activity Center giving lessons in dance
theropy. She also made appearances at Wizard of Oz festivals
throughout the country most recently as the grand marshall of the 2011
Oz-Stravaganza in Ohittenago, New York last June.

After a long life of excitment, dancing, and entertaining thousands
Caren Marsh died from natural causes on the morning of January 2, 2011
from natural causes in her Palm Springs home at age 92. By her request
funeral services were held promptly on January 5, 2011 at the Palm
Springs United Methodist Community Church followed by internment at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cathedral City. In her own words, Caren
said, "I was so thankful to just be alive. Things that bothered me
before, I have become much more peaceful and less worried about
anything."

http://fan.tcm.com/_In-Memoriam-Caren-Marsh/blog/5693985/66470.html

[lenz...@gmail.com]

I don't know who posted this obit, but Caren Marsh-Doll is very much alive as of this writing (August 28, 2012). I know because I just had dinner with her last week and we went to see "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" together. She'll also be attending this year's 31st Annual Wizard of Oz festival in Chesterton, Indiana next month.

[maest...@aol.com]

Caren is very much alive. I met her in Palm Springs just a couple of weeks ago (in October 2013). She was at a shop doing a book signing and she was delightful and in great spirits and very much alive and lovely.