Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977) was an Academy Award winning American actress.

Early life

She was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Thomas E. LeSueur (1868-1938) and Anna Bell Johnson (1884-1958). Her older siblings were Daisy LeSueur, who died as a very young child, and Hal LeSueur. Her father, who was born in Tennessee, was of French Huguenot extraction. His ancestors immigrated from London, England, in the early 1700s to Virginia, where they lived for several generations. LeSueur was said to have abandoned the family in Texas; Crawford later said she had been only a few months old when her father left.

Related Topics:
San Antonio - Texas - 1868 - 1938 - 1884 - 1958 - Hal LeSueur - Tennessee - French - Huguenot - Immigrate - London - England - 1700s - Virginia

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Her mother later married Henry J. Cassin (born 1867). The family lived in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Cassin ran a movie theater. The 1910 Comanche County, Oklahoma, Federal Census, enumerated on April 20, shows Henry and Anna living at 910 "D" Street in Lawton. Lucille was then 5 years of age.

Related Topics:
1867 - Lawton, Oklahoma - Movie theater - 1910 - Comanche County, Oklahoma - Federal Census

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For most of her life, Crawford maintained that she was born in 1908. It has been generally accepted, however, that she was born earlier. Some believe she was born in 1904, but her brother, Hal, was born in September 1903, making a birth for Crawford only 6 months later impossible. As birth records for San Antonio are not available for years earlier than 1908, and in the absence of a birth certificate, her year of birth has been estimated to be 1905 based on the April 1910 census when she was 5. http://www.genealogymagazine.com/joancrawford.html

Related Topics:
1908 - 1904 - 1903 - 1905

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Lucille preferred the nickname "Billie," and she loved watching live acts of vaudeville perform on the stage of her stepfather's theater. Her ambition was to be a dancer. Unfortunately, she cut her foot deeply on a broken milk bottle when she leapt from the front porch of her home in an attempt to escape piano lessons and run and play with friends. A neighbor, Don Blanding, who became a poet, carried her into the house and phoned the doctor. She was unable to attend elementary school for a year and a half and eventually had three operations on her foot. Demonstrating the steely determination that would serve her for the rest of her life, she eventually overcame the injury and returned not only to walking normally, but to dancing as well.

Related Topics:
Vaudeville - Dance - Don Blanding - Poet

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In about 1916, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Henry Cassin was first listed in the City Directory in 1917, living at 403 East Ninth Street.

Related Topics:
1916 - Kansas City, Missouri - 1917

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While still in elementary school, she was placed in St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic school in Kansas City. Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy as a work student. And in 1922 she registered at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and gave her year of birth as 1906. She attended Stephens for less than a year, however, as she recognized that she was not academically prepared for college at that time.

Related Topics:
Catholic - 1922 - Stephens College - Columbia, Missouri - 1906

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