Penny Edwards

Vivacious blue-eyed blonde Penny Edwards was born in New York City in 1928 and displayed signs of musical talent as a youth. She began studying dance by age six and, as a teen, appeared on Broadway in "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1943". After a couple of other musicals and a stint with the St. Louis Municipal Opera, she was signed by Warner Brothers in 1947. She showed great perk and promise as a second lead, singing and dancing opposite the likes of Dennis Morgan and Ben Blue in her film debut, My Wild Irish Rose (1947). She continued on winningly in the Shirley Temple vehicle That Hagen Girl (1947); then alongside Morgan again in Two Guys from Texas (1948); with Donald O'Connor and Marjorie Main in the rube musical Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' (1948); and in another musical, Tucson (1949). After a successful vaudeville tour, Penny was signed by Republic Pictures and started off in a series of "prairie flower" ingénue roles while temporarily replacing a pregnant Dale Evans in a number of Roy Rogers oaters. In 1951, she wed agent Ralph Winters and had two daughters: Deborah Winters (born 1954), who would go on to become an actress in her own right, and Rebecca (born 1956). After a succession of "B" movies, Penny left Hollywood to focus on religious work. She later reappeared on the more popular TV shows of the day, including the westerns Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), Wagon Train (1957) and Bonanza (1959), and in light-hearted entertainment alongside Robert Cummings and Red Skelton in their respective shows. Penny's lovely, ladylike features also made a significant dent in the commercial market, appearing as "The Lux Girl", "The Palmolive Girl" and "The Tiparillo Girl". Following her divorce in 1958, Penny married Jerry Friedman and they had a son, David. That 1964 union would end up in the divorce courts as well. Penny retired from show biz completely by the mid-1960s and died, in 1998, of lung cancer, just two days after her 70th birthday.