Ann Rutherford Dozier

Radio, television, and film actress Ann Rutherford, one of the few surviving stars of “Gone with the Wind,” has died. In the 1939 epic film, she played Carreen O’Hara, Scarlett’s youngest sister. She died June 11, 2012 in her beloved Beverly Hills home where she had lived for almost 70 years. She was 94 years old.

Miss Rutherford had a rich and varied entertainment industry career that spanned more than four decades. It began in radio, at the height of the Depression, when she won the role of Nancy in “Nancy and Dick: The Spirit of ’76.” Her first film was “Waterfront Lady” in 1935. She played Mickey Rooney’s girlfriend Polly Benedict in the “Andy Hardy” series and was Gene Autry’s first on screen leading lady. She appeared in “A Christmas Carol,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Orchestra Wives,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Whistling in Brooklyn,” and dozens of other films. On television, she guest-starred on the “Perry Mason” show and had the recurring role of Suzanne Pleshette’s mother on the “Bob Newhart Show.”

She was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and spent her childhood in San Francisco. Her

family moved to Los Angeles when she was in her early teens. She married David May, grandson of the founder of the May Department Stores Co. in 1942. They later divorced, and in 1953 she married film and television producer William Dozier. He died in 1991. Her immediate family survivors include her daughter, Gloria May; her grandsons (her “treasures” as she called them), David Voeller and Tom Voeller; her nephew, David Simon (Cheryl) and their daughter Lisa; her cousin, actor Ed Faulkner (Barbara); and her step-daughter, Deborah Dozier Potter (Earl). She is predeceased by her sister and brother-in-law, Judith Rutherford Simon (who was a WAMPAS Baby Star under the name Judith Arlen) and television producer Al Simon; and by her step-son, television and film screenwriter Robert Dozier (Diana Muldaur).

In addition to her family, she leaves behind her loving companion of more than 20 years, Al Morley (“The dearest man on Earth” she often said); her devoted friend Hermine Brooks (widow of Rand Brooks who played Charles Hamilton, Scarlett’s first husband, in “Gone with the Wind,”); her “best running buddy,” actress Anne Jeffreys, and her closest friends Bonnie and Sam Strangis, Betty Graham, Debbie Reynolds, Ineka Peskin, Jackie Rose, Marc Renfroe, and dozens of others.

With her signature crystal eyeglass frames and her perpetual smile, enthusiasm, and sense of humor, she was known as one of the most kind and caring people in Hollywood. Not only did Miss Rutherford enjoy a wide circle of personal friends, she continued to receive fan mail until the day she died, much of which came from young men and women in their teens and twenties who had just “discovered” classic films.

No funeral services will be held as, according to her daughter, Miss Rutherford often said, “I want people to be happy that they knew me, not gather and be sad that I am gone.”

Arrangements under the direction of Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary, Los Angeles, CA.