Carole Lombard

Birth:
Oct. 6, 1908
Death:
Jan. 16, 1942

Actress. Born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, one of three children, her parents separated and with her mother she moved to California. Her career spanned from the silent era to "talkies." An auto accident almost ended her life as well as acting by inflicting serious scars on her face.
Undaunted, she was able to cover the blemishes with the heavy use of cosmetics. She received her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress in "My Man Godfrey".

"No Man Of Her Own" put her opposite Clark Gable for the first and only time but their marriage was still seven years away when they became the ideal Hollywood couple known for their success in the film industry.

She did not see her final movie "To Be Or Not To Be" released.
With World War II raging in 1942,
Clark Gable journeyed to Nevada to join a search party seeking the wreckage of a TWA twin engine DC-3 airliner flying from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. Aboard were 22 passengers including Carole Lombard Gable and her mother.

She had wound up a war bond drive just before boarding.
There were no survivors.

The blonde film star of the 1930s best remembered for her "Screw Ball comedies" was gone. Clark Gable rode on the train that carried the bodies of his wife and mother-in-law back to Los Angeles. She had left specific instructions for her burial in the event of death.
Clark Gable purchased three crypts at Forest Lawn Cemetery, one for Carole, her mother and a reserve for himself.
She mandated a swift, direct interment in a mausoleum crypt at Forest Lawn with only her immediate family present. In the wake of her death at age 33,
the Army offered to conduct a military funeral to honor the first star to give her life while aiding the war effort.
They were refused and her wishes were carried out as specified.

However, a World War II Liberty Ship was christened in her honor.
She is interred next to Gable and to her mother, Elizabeth Peters, who also perished in the crash.