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June Haver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
June Haver (June 10, 1926 – July 4, 2005), was an American film actress, who was born in Rock Island, Illinois as Beverly Jane Stovenour. "June" was her nickname and her surname became "Haver" when her mother divorced and remarried.
Haver began singing on stage at the age of six, working regularly as a band singer by her teens. In 1943 the Fox movie studio had hired her, with her first starring role as Cri-Cri in Home In Indiana (1945). Later that year she co-starred with future husband, Fred MacMurray, in Where Do We Go From Here?, which was the only time the pair appeared together in a film.
Although Haver was originally groomed to be the next Betty Grable (she was known as "Pocket Grable"), her acting career was to be brief. In 1952, following a divorce and the death of her fiancé, she converted to Roman Catholicism and announced that she would become a nun.
Accounts differ on whether she entered a convent briefly in 1953 or ultimately decided against going through with it. Around that time, Haver met MacMurray, one of the wealthiest and most conservative men in Hollywood, again, and a romantic relationship developed. They were married on June 28, 1954, and Haver remained largely retired from acting (her last appearances were as herself on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1958 and Disneyland '59); she later found some success as an interior decorator. The couple adopted two daughters and remained together until MacMurray's death in 1991.
At the urging of friends, Ann Miller and Ann Rutherford, Haver finally joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the age of 75. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, June Haver has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1777 Vine Street.
June Haver died from respiratory failure four years later on July 4, 2005 at her home in Brentwood, California at the age of 79 and was buried with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City.
Haver left behind two stepchildren (by MacMurray's first marriage), two adopted children, and seven grandchildren.