Karen X. Gaylord

Karen X. Gaylord (January 4, 1921 - August 1, 2014) was an American actress, model, and former Miss Minnesota, whose career was most successful during the 1940s.
He is not married thier life.

Early Life
She was born Karen Xandra Gaylord on January 4, 1921, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a working class family.  She was the oldest of four children (all girls).  Her father worked as an engineer with the Northern Pacific Railway. 

After she graduated from North Community High School in 1939, Gaylord wanted to go to college to study music and art.  But then a friend of hers saw a notice in a magazine called Movie Mirror.  It said that the movie studios in California were accepting photographs with names and addresses to help them find new actors for movies.  Without telling Gaylord, her friend mailed in Gaylord's picture.  Not long after, Gaylord got a letter telling her that she had been chosen to come to California for a tryout.

The entire Gaylord family decided this would be a good chance for all of them.  The whole family moved to California with Karen.

Career in entertainment 
After moving to California, Karen began going to all of the major studios in Hollywood, doing screen and wardrobe tests (tryouts to see how she acted and looked on movie screens and in costumes). 

In 1941, Gaylord was in her first film, The Chocolate Soldier with Nelson Eddy (though she was not listed in the credits at the end of the movie).  Between 1941 and 1949, she acted in about 36 films (see the "Filmography" section lower on this page).  But she was only listed in the credits for these movies once, for the 1944 film Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth.

In 1942, the Chamber of Commerce of Minneapolis, Minnesota, chose Gaylord as their 1942 'Miss Minnesota.'  Not long after this, film producer Samuel Goldwyn chose Karen to become one of his six new Goldwyn Girls.  (The Goldwyn Girls were a group of female dancers that included some very famous women.)  

Gaylord also became a popular stand-in, and stood in place for leading ladies like Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Laraine Day, Evelyn Keyes, Gene Tierney, and Jeanne Crain.  (A stand-in plays an actor's role when the actor is not there.)

Teaching and later life 
In 1949, Gaylord left the entertainment industry.  She moved to Clearwater, Florida, to begin her lifelong dream of teaching music and art.  In 1950, she legally changed her name from Karen Xandra Gaylord to Jane Goerner. 

Up until the 1990s, she gave private music and art lessons out of her home. 

In the last years of her life, she had some serious health problems.  She sold her home and moved to Ocala, Florida, to live with her sister and brother-in-law.  She died in her sleep at the age of 93 on August 1, 2014.  There were no funeral services or memorials.  Her body was donated to medical science through the body donation program at the University of Florida's College of Medicine.

Filmography

1941: The Chocolate Soldier
1941: Hellzapoppin'''
1941: Babes on Broadway1942: Alias Boston Blackie1942: Yankee Doodle Dandy1942: Miss Annie Rooney1942: The Big Street1942: Road to Morrocco1942: Tennessee Johnson1942: Pittsburg1943: Shadow of a Doubt1943: Mr. Lucky1943: Mister Big1943: Girl Crazy1943: In Old Oklahoma1944: Cover Girl1944: Pin Up Girl1944: The Hour Before the Dawn1944: When Strangers Marry|width="40%" valign="top"|
1944: Greenwich Village1944: Ministry of Fear1945: Tonight and Every Night1945: Diamond Horseshoe1945: Thrill of a Romance1945: Wonder Man1945: Ziegfeld Follies1945: Yolanda and the Theif1946: The Kid from Brooklyn1946: Night in Paradise1946: Three Little Girls in Blue1947: The Shocking Miss Pilgrim1947: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty1947: Linda Be Good1948: I Love Trouble1948: A Song is Born1949: The Girl from Jones Beach''
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1921 births
2014 deaths
Deaths from natural causes
American movie actors
Actors from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Actors from Florida
People from Ocala, Florida