Indeed This Blog Has Again Proved My Belief: ""Sometimes The Best Things In Life Seem To Come By ACCIDENT!"

February 20, 1953 - Shirley received a Western Union, dated 2:55 p.m., notifying her that she would be receiving the Golden Globe award. The notification is published in my biography of Shirley.

February 23, 1954 - By The Beautiful Sea, Shirley's third of five musicals on Broadway, previewed at Boston’s Shubert Theatre until March 13.

The opening lines of my introduction to my biography of Shirley Booth, the celebrated actress of stage, screen, radio and television read as follows:

"Sometimes the best things in life seem to come by accident. However, as I've seen many times in my life, there are few accidents."

This again proved to be true a year after my biography was published.

Shirley Booth had only one sibling, a sister named Jean, born on Valentine's Day in 1914 - almost 16 years after Shirley (August 30, 1898).

My research indicated that Shirley's sister Jean had passed away by the time I was researching and writing my biography Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story, beginning in 2004. All searches led to dead ends, so I inadvertently and quickly referred to her as "the late Jean Coe" in the first chapter of my book.

After BearManor Media published my first biography in 2008, I began the work of promoting my biography. The best way to do this seemed to be via an online daily blog. Six months after I began the blog (http://shirleybooth.info/) I received the following message:

On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 9:30 PM, Leslie Sodaro has left a new comment on your post "'The Gals They Left Behind'...Shirley Booth At Her...":

Mr. Manago (and lovely researcher Donna),

I am Jean Valentine Ford Coe's daughter (and Shirley's niece). I just discovered your blog site and book (and also another's book) about my aunt and relayed the information to my mother who is hardly late and very much present at 95.5, living in residential retirement in Forest Grove, Oregon (a far piece from Brooklyn beginnings and a nice long run in Los Angeles). Mother is interested and excited to know all that your book contains. She has mac degeneration so I will have to read the book to her. Thank you for taking the time and energy to honor Aunt Shirley.

Sincerely,

Leslie Coe Sodaro

This had to be one of the biggest and thrilling surprises in a writer's life. I responded to this with great excitement. Although I got it wrong - I was delighted to learn that Jean was still alive. Correspondence with Shirley Booth's niece Leslie followed. I learned that her nearly 96-year old mom had several debilitating strokes and had substantial medical problems as a result.

In short, the revelation of Jean being alive proved quite fruitful. I was able to learn some other things about Shirley after providing her mom with an autographed copy of my book. Since her eyesight was failing and her concentration was uneven, my biography was read to her at the retirement home by staff.

One of the first matters to be brought to my attention by Leslie was that Jean was very surprised to learn that Shirley's birth certificate indicated her name was "Marjory Ford." She was known as "Thelma" before changing her name to "Shirley Booth." In the eight decades that she knew her sister Shirley, Jean Coe never heard this name mentioned by Shirley or anyone. However, the birth certificate proved beyond a doubt that she was born as "Marjory Ford."

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THANKS FOR VISITING!

JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!

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For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com

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Now available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076ZCBM2

Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com