Karen X. Gaylord
{{short description|American actress (1921–2014)}}
Karen X. Gaylord (born Jane Goerner; August 29, 1921 – August 1, 2014){{cite web |title=Karen X. Gaylord |url=https://threestooges.net/cast/actor/4702 |website=The Three Stooges |access-date=1 December 2022}} was an American actress and a Miss Minnesota state pageant winner.
Early years
The daughter of W. C. and Marie Goerner, Gaylord was born Jane Goerner on August 29, 1921.{{cite news |title=Two 'Cover Girls' in Film of Same Name Are Minneapolitans |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10376977/model-lived-at-236-clifton/ |access-date=July 31, 2021 |work=Star Tribune |date=July 4, 1943 |page=26|via = Newspapers.com}} She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but grew up in Minneapolis and lived in Devils Lake, North Dakota, for three years.{{cite news |title=Karen X. Gaylord Here on Way to New Film |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82497121/karen-x-gaylord/ |access-date=July 30, 2021 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=June 4, 1946 |page=7|via = Newspapers.com}} She attended West High School in Minneapolis and a junior college in North Dakota.{{cite news |title=Is City New Beauty Capital? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43639419/star_tribune/ |accessdate=February 5, 2020 |work=Star Tribune |date=May 6, 1945 |location=Minnesota, Minneapolis |page=38|via = Newspapers.com}} She worked at a bank in Minneapolis{{cite news |last1=Nyberg |first1=John |title=Miss Minnesota, Now Film Actress, Visits Bank Where She Started Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43635995/karen_x_gaylord/ |accessdate=February 5, 2020 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=January 8, 1945 |location=Minnesota, Minneapolis |page=1|via = Newspapers.com}} and won the Miss Minnesota title in 1942.
Career
One of the Miss Minnesota judges was Harry Conover, and after she won that title he hired her to work in his modeling agency in New York. Pictures of her appeared in many magazines, and she was featured on the cover of Liberty magazine. Gaylord was one of six models who worked in England for six weeks in 1946 while six models from there came to work in the United States for the same period in an exchange initiated by England's Lucie Clayton.{{cite news |title=Hollywood Beauties to Model in England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82537606/the-minneapolis-star/ |access-date=July 31, 2021 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=July 30, 1946 |page=26|via = Newspapers.com}}
In Hollywood, Gaylord became a member of the Goldwyn Girls musical stock company.{{cite news |title=She Might Be Your Neighbor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43634397/star_tribune/ |accessdate=February 5, 2020 |work=Star Tribune |date=August 26, 1956 |location=Minnesota, Minneapolis |page=32|via = Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book|author=Samuel Claesson|author-link=|title=Glamour: Models, Mannequins, and Pinups of the 1950s|page=142|publisher=Sequoia Press|date=January 31, 2025|isbn=9798350736847}} Films in which she appeared included Cover Girl (1944), Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), Night in Paradise (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), A Song Is Born (1948), and The Girl From Jones Beach (1949).{{cite web |title=Karen X. Gaylord |url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/karen-x-gaylord-p26238 |website=AllMovie |access-date=July 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210731162106/https://www.allmovie.com/artist/karen-x-gaylord-p26238 |archive-date=July 31, 2021}}
Personal life
On August 15, 1948, Gaylord married Don McGuire, an actor,{{cite news |last1=Zylstra |first1=Freida |title=Ex-Chicagoan Don McGuire Now in His 27th Movie |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34027670/don-mcguire/ |access-date=July 31, 2021 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=February 27, 1950 |page=27|via = Newspapers.com}} television writer and director.{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Bob |title=Reporting at large |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43633131/karen_x_gaylord_jane_goerner/ |accessdate=February 5, 2020 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=May 27, 1963 |location=Minnesota, Minneapolis |page=1 B|via = Newspapers.com}} By the mid-1950s, she had retired from acting to be a homemaker. They later divorced.https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/26/arts/don-mcguire-80-writer-for-films-and-tv.html<.ref>
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaylord, Karen X.}}
Category:20th-century American actresses