She was born in Grabtown, North Carolina.
When she was six years old, this barefoot tomboy had already climbed her community water tower.
By the time she was eighteen, she was signed at MGM Studios.
The next year she married the studio's biggest superstar.
She soon became Hollywood's newest starlet.
Some said she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
This is the story of the Grabtown Girl, Ava Gardner.
Next on Marking History!
This is the historical marker for Ava Garner, located here in Smithfield North Carolina.
She was an actress of incredible beauty and class who made 67 films during her forty- five-year career,
while remaining true to her rural North Carolina heritage.
A mile up the road in downtown Smithfield is her legacy on display - the Ava Gardner Museum.
The Museum is home to an incredible collection of artifacts including original scripts,
photos, costumes, and personal effects of screen legend Ava Gardner, whose life was a true Hollywood “Cinderella” story.
Here you can experience her rise to fame from a local country girl to one of Hollywood's goddesses of film.
Now let's learn more about the story behind the marker!
Her story begins in a small North Carolina crossroads community called Grabtown.
Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on Christmas Eve 1922 to parents Jonas and Molly Gardner.
She was the youngest of seven children. Her father was a cotton and tobacco farmer.
She was a tomboy to the bone and loved taking risks.
By age six, she had climbed to the top of the Brogden water tower behind the school.
She loved games, she loved action and she could match most of the boys at softball or marbles.
As Ava grew up in rural North Carolina, a metamorphosis took place.
She emerged from her tomboy cocoon into a beautiful butterfly.
Who would guess that a fateful 1940 trip to New York City to visit her beloved sister Beatrice
would kickstart Ava's rise to stardom.
That summer GONE WITH THE WIND was THE movie to watch in the theatres.
Beatrice's photographer husband,Larry Tarr, took a portrait of 17 year old Ava,
emulating the look of the beautiful Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.
Tarr displayed this photo in the street window of his 5th Avenue photography studio.
One thing led to another and before long she was being interviewed by MGM's New York talent department.
In the summer of 1941, Ava was set up with a film test at MGM's New York office with Al Altman,
head of MGM's New York talent department.
With cameras rolling, he directed the 18-year-old to walk towards the camera, turn and walk away,
then rearrange some flowers in a vase.
He did not attempt to record her voice because he felt her strong Southern accent made understanding her difficult.
As the story goes, Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM was flabbergasted when he saw the film and reacted
with a telegram to Altman.
He offered her the standard MGM $50 a week seven-year contract,
brought her to Hollywood at once, and arranged a voice coach to get rid of her Carolina drawl.
Ava's mother, Molly, did not want her innocent daughter going alone to Hollywood at the age of eighteen.
So she was happy when Ava's oldest sister Beatrice, nicknamed Bappie, offered to leave New York
and chaperone her baby sister to the West Coast in August 1941.
On their second day in Hollywood, Ava and Bappie toured MGM studios.
There Ava met her future husband on the soundstage of “Babes on Broadway”.
He was the biggest star in Hollywood at the time, Mickey Rooney.
Ironically Mickey was dressed as woman for a Carmen Miranda song and dance segment.
Ava took Bappie's advice and played hard to get.
But Mickey was charismatic and very persuasive.
They married 5 months later at a small white church in Ballard, California on January 10, 1942.
Ava was only 19 and Mickey was 21 years old.
The ceremony was held in the remote town of Ballard, California
because MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer was worried that fans would desert Rooney's “Andy Hardy” movie series
if it became known that their star was married.
The marriage only lasted a year.
Ava divorced Mickey in 1943, blaming his gambling and womanizing.
Mickey Rooney went on the marry seven more wives!
Ava's first screen appearances in films were no more than walk- ons and window dressing for the lead actors.
From 1942 to 1945 she played bit parts in MGM movies such as
In 1944 Ava met band leader and composer Artie Shaw, at a party.
She couldn't believe she was actually meeting the man to whose music she had danced to
at Holt Lake back home in North Carolina.
It was more than talent, charm and good looks that impressed Ava. He was an intellectual.
On October 17, 1945 they married at Artie's Beverly Hills mansion. She was 22 and Artie was 35.
It was marriage number two for Ava and marriage five for Shaw.
During their marriage, Artie became extremely emotionally abusive.
He frequently belittled Ava for her perceived intellectual and educational shortcomings.
Their marriage lasted only one year and one week.
Shaw married three more times after Ava, bringing the total to eight wives.
It was during their courtship that Artie Shaw composed a lasting tribute
to Ava and her Carolina roots with a swing tune entitled “The Grabtown Grapple.”
After Ava's split with Artie Shaw, she moved into her own little house in LA
and started looking for a maid and someone she could trust.
Enter a 24 year old Black woman from St Louis named Mearene Jordan.
In an era when the “N” word was used harshly, and movie stars were often treated like property,
the two women protected and comforted each other as sisters, and were blessed to have each other to lean on.
So began a relationship that lasted for the next 44 years.
Ava's third and last marriage was to singer and actor Frank Sinatra, from 1951 to 1957.
She later said in her autobiography that he was the love of her life.
Because Sinatra left his wife Nancy and three children, Ava's marriage to Frank made headlines.
Their fights were legendary and their make-up sessions were loud.
Sinatra's intense jealousy and mistrust of his wife, coupled with their substantial drinking habits,
eventually lead to the actress' third failed marriage.
However, Ava and Frank remained good friends for the rest of her life.
While on loan to Universal studios, Ava finally got her big break playing Kitty Collins
in the Ernest Hemingway adaptation, “The Killers”, with newcomer Burt Lancaster.
The character of Kitty was that of the classic femme fatale,
a beautiful woman who ultimately brings disaster to the men around her.
It was released in August 1946 to rave reviews.
“The Killers” was a critical success, earning four Academy Award nominations,
including for Best Director and Best Film Editing
Her good reviews prompted MGM to try her opposite the King himself, Clark Gable,
in the movie “The Hucksters” in which she played a self-assured nightclub singer.
Ava handled her role nicely and was promoted to full-fledged stardom.
Ava had always wanted to be a singer since childhood and had a good voice.
In 1951 Ava contributed a memorable performance in the musical romantic comedy-drama, “Show Boat” as Julie La Verne.
Unfortunately, the studio decided to replace Ava's singing for vocalist and jazz singer, Annette Warren.
As you can imagine, this left her very bitter towards MGM Studios.
In an example of legal irony, the studio was forced to use Ava's singing performance
on the original motion picture soundtrack album because her photo was on the album cover.
AND her song “Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man” was the only song released as a single from that album!
Ava finally became a record star!
A string of box office hits followed, including “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” with lifetime friend Gregory Peck.
This film was adaptation of another Ernest Hemingway story brought to the silver screen.
Next year, in 1953, Ava shared starring roles with Clark Gable in the African classic, “Mogambo”.
According to film reviews, Ava was completely charming in her own way and walked off with every scene she was in.
For her interpretation of the tart-tongued character, Eloise Kelly,
Ava snagged a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1954.
Ava used her considerable influence to get Sinatra cast in his Oscar-winning role
in “From Here to Eternity”.
So Ava and Frank were both up for Oscars at the 1954 Academy Awards.
Only one would get the statue.
The winner is Frank Sinatra!
Frank got his Oscar but Ava didn't.
That role and the award revitalized both Sinatra's acting and singing careers,
which had floundered after leaving Nancy for Ava.
Unfortunately, Ava lost out to newcomer Audrey Hepburn,
who took the award for her performance in “Roman Holiday”.
The nomination in 1954 proved to be Ava's only shot at an Academy Award.
The Barefoot Contessa is a 1954 American drama, filmed in Rome,
about the life and loves of fictional Spanish sex symbol, Maria Vargas.
It was a role that Ava seemed born to play.
An earthy Spanish dancer who's transformed into a screen goddess.
But destined never to find personal happiness.
As the story goes, Maria is a beautiful Spanish woman who had been born in poverty, achieved fame and fortune as an actress
but never found fulfilment in her personal life.
Some moviegoers felt that the film paralleled Ava's life.
The movie gave Ava some of her most cherished scenes and introduced her to flamenco dancing,
which became one of her great joys in life.
This Barefoot Contessa wore her high heels the day she was honored
during a handprint ceremony at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Later came her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1955 Ava moved Spain to get away from all the Hollywood drama.
While there, Ava finally met the author who inspired several of her movies, Ernest Hemingway.
She and Papa Hemingway became great friends and visited each other many times until his untimely death.
It was her work in the 1964 John Huston film, "The Night of the Iguana"
that garnered Ava the best reviews of her career.
Ava plays the flamboyant Maxine Faulk while Richard Burton plays Dr. Shannon the ostracized Episcopal priest.
The film became the 10th highest-grossing film of 1964 and picked up several Academy Award nominations.
Ava was nominated best actress for both a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her performance.
After twelve years in Spain, Ava decided it was time to go.
Ava moved to London in 1968 and lived in a luxury flat at 34 Ennismore Gardens until her death.
She lived quietly, socializing with close friends and enjoying an occasional visit to the ballet, theatre, or local pub.
Most evenings Carmen Vargas, her long-time housekeeper, gave her dinner on a tray in front of the fire.
Ava particularly liked walking her beloved Welsh corgi, Morgan.
As the years went on and her beauty started to fade, she withdrew from the public
and lived the rest of her life far from camera lenses.
She enjoyed the anonymity of her life in England and only made occasional films when she 'needed the loot'.
In 1985 she was talked into devoting seven episodes as a cast member of the prime-time TV soap opera, "Knots'Landing”.
Ava plays Ruth Sumner, mother of the ruthless lawyer, Greg Sumner, played by William Devane.
At age 62, the television shooting pace was difficult for Ava.
After a lifetime of smoking, a bout of pneumonia brought on a stroke in 1986 that left Ava partially paralyzed.
She died four years later, on January 25, 1990, at the age of 67.
More than one obituary declared her the most beautiful woman who ever stepped in front of the camera
and she was once in fact "voted" The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
As per her wishes, her remains were returned to North Carolina
for burial with her family at Smithfield's Sunset Memorial Park.
Ava is buried next to her siblings and her parents, Molly and Jonas Gardner.
After her death, fellow actor and close friend, Gregory Peck,
honored her with a beautiful gesture.
He brought her companion, Carmen Vargas and her dog, Morgan, back to Los Angeles to live in his guest house.
When Ava's beloved dog Morgan died, Peck buried him in his own back yard.
Thirty years after her passing, she still has a tremendous impact on popular culture.
She is the subject of many articles, websites, books, films, and television productions.
She has been honored with historical markers in the US and the UK,
and sculptured into a bronze statue that looks over the Mediterranean on the east coast of Spain.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Ava Gardner Number 25
on their greatest female screen legends of classic American cinema.
She was truly a fascinating person who was always giving and kind.
In addition to her support of public causes and charities, there are countless stories of her generosity to individuals.
Throughout her lifetime, Ava supported humanitarian causes and contributed her time and money to charities
such as the March of Dimes, the American Cancer Society, and the American Red Cross.
Four years before her death, Ava established a Living Trust to provide for her two surviving sisters.
Today the Ava Gardner Trust has evolved to continue Ava's renowned legacy of generosity and compassion.
Beneficiaries include St Jude's Children Research Hospital, Queen Victoria Hospital in Southeast England
and the Ava Gardner museum in Smithfield North Carolina.
It is partly through the work of the Museum
that the Trust is able to secure licenses that provide income for the beneficiaries.
So, next you visit the Ava Gardner museum to buy DVDs, books or postcards,
you are helping others around the world with the help of that gal from Grabtown.
If history can be taught with stories
they can never be forgotten.
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