Sex Symbols (Female)

The beautiful and sultry Jane Russell died Monday from Respiratory failure at the age of 89.   She became something of a pinup legend for World War II GIs!

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921 in Bemidji, Minnesota.   Her father was a US Army lieutenant and her mother was a drama student and aspiring actress.  Jane’s mother urged her to go to drama school and the rest (as corny as it sounds) is history.

Jane Russell skyrocketed to fame in the ’1940s after starring in Howard Hughes’ 1941 western, ‘The Outlaw.’    Another of her most popular movies was 1953′s ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ alongside Marilyn Monroe.

More films followed – including two – Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) and The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956) – that Jane Russell fans especially applaud for highlighting more than her sex appeal.  These movies showed just what a fine actress she actually was.

Eventually, the movies kind of faded away – back then, an actress was nearly out of her prime if she was out of her 20s (thank God those days have changed!).  Jane’s name, face, and figure stayed in the public’s adoring eye in the 1970s when she became a spokesperson for Playtex bras. Many of us (myself, included) first knew Ms. Russell from these commercials.  When I first watched one of her older westerns with my dad, I asked him, “Isn’t that the bra lady?“  Dad: “Yes. She was an actress before she was the bra lady.”

The screen star was once married to pro football player Bob Waterfield. In 1968, their 24-year marriage ended in divorce. She then married actor Roger Barrett, who died three months later.Her third, and final, marriage was to developer John Peoples in 1978. He died in 1999 of heart failure.

After Jane Russell retired from the screen, she became active in her church and with favorite charitable foundations.

“She always said I’m going to die in the saddle, I’m not going to sit at home and become an old woman,” Russell’s daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield told the Associated Press. “And that’s exactly what she did, she died in the saddle.”

Survivors include her children, Thomas K. Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert “Buck” Waterfield, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Jane Russell Trivia

• She and husband Bob Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy, in February of 1952

• They adopted a 15-month-old British boy, Tommy Kavanaugh, in December of 1952.

• Through her organization, World Adoption International Fund (WAIF), Russell has placed 51,000 children with adoptive families. (Talk about LIVING legacies!)

• Jane Russells breasts are the namesake for ‘The Jane Russell Peaks’ in Alaska.

• A born-again Christian, Jane Russell held weekly Bible studies at her home. These were attended by some of the industry’s biggest names.

• Unable to bear children, she fought for the passage of the Federal Orphan Adoption Amendment of 1953, which allowed children of American servicemen born overseas to be placed for adoption in the United States.

Jane’s favorite book was the Bible and she read from it every single day.  I can’t help but smile when I think that this beautiful lady (inside and out) has now met the Author of the Book she cherished.

Jane Russell is yet another example of why Hollywood Yesterday exists – to keep the memories alive! When the memories are truly special, like the ones involving Jane Russell, it makes the walk down memory lane even sweeter. Jane Russell was a screen and pinup goddess but she was so much more than that. The way she stood up for what she believed in and fought for adoptive parents and children is a reminder to all of us that we, too, will one day leave a legacy.

Here’s hoping it’ll be even half as sweet as the bra lady‘s.