William eddins mcmath biography of christopher
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Virginia Katherine (McMath) Rogers (1911 - 1995)
VirginiaKatherine(Ginger)Rogers formerly McMath aka Culpepper, Ayers, Bergerac, Marshall
Daughter of William Eddins McMath and Lela Emogen (Owens) Rogers
Profile gods modified | Created 21 Jul 2014
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Biography
Ginger (McMath) Rogers is Notable.
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was the winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Kitty Foyle in 1940. She was particularly known for her work with Fre
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The Truth About Ginger Rogers' Real Name
Lela McMath also worked in Hollywood, but mainly as a writer, and then moved back to Kansas City where, in 1920, she married John Rogers, and so became Lela Rogers (per IMDb). Britannica explains that her daughter, Virginia McMath, also took the last name of her new stepfather. "Ginger," meanwhile, was reportedly inspired by a cousin's attempts to pronounce her first name, Virginia.
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Coming to be known as Ginger Rogers allowed her to shed any association with her father, William Eddins McMath. After his separation from her mother, Rogers wrote in her autobiography "Ginger: My Story," that her father plotted to abduct her and find "a school in which he could enroll [her] under a phony name, to prevent [her mother] from finding [her]." She added, "two years later, my father once more attempted to kidnap me, and that time mother took him to court."
The McMath name, however, was still a tremendous source of pride for Rogers, who
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“Over the years, myths were built up about my relationship with Fred Astaire. The general public thought he was a Svengali, who snapped his fingers for his little Trilby to obey; in their eyes, my career was his creation.”
So writes Ginger Rogers in her 1991 autobiography, Ginger Rogers: My Story. But despite her protestations, the Oscar winner will always be linked in the public mind to Fred Astaire, with whom she made ten delightful musical comedy classics—including Swing Time, Follow the Fleet and Top Hat.
In My Story, Rogers shows the breadth of her life, recounting her romances with Cary Grant, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Stewart, and first husband Lew Ayers. A straight-shooting, slightly preachy teetotaling Republican, she expounds extensively on the miracles she witnessed as a Christian Scientist (the warts on her husband’s feet were cured!) and the hard work that made her a top box office attraction.
Her onscreen partner Fred Astaire’s 1959 autobiography, Steps in Tim