LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jane Wyman: Years
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Ms. Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield in Missouri on Jan. 5, 1917, to Manning J. Mayfield and Gladys Hope Christian. Her parents divorced in 1921, and the next year her father died of pneumonia at the age of 27. Her mother then moved to Cleveland. Placed in the care of neighbors, Richard and Emma Fulks, she was reared in St. Joseph, Mo., and took their surname.
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Wyman's early life is somewhat contentious. Records would indicate that she was born Sarah Jane Mayfield, daughter of Manning J. Mayfield, a labourer at a food company, and Gladdys Hope Christian, in St Joseph, Missouri, in 1917. Her parents, who married in 1916, were divorced in 1921, and Manning died the following year. Gladdys then gave her daughter into the care of Richard Fulks and his German-born wife, the former Emma Reiss. There seems to have been no formal adoption or name change, but when the child was registered for first grade at the Noyes School in St Joseph, Emma listed her name as "Sarah Jane Fulks".
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Ms. Wyman, intent on a show business career, moved back to Hollywood two years later and began working as chorus girl, eventually landing a job as a dancer in Busby Berkeley's movie ''The Kid From Spain,'' starring Eddie Cantor. The chorus line included Paulette Goddard and Betty Grable.
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After a failed attempt to break into the movie biz, Jane dropped out of high school and with her adoptive mother moved to Hollywood. She was able to get work as a chorus girl from LeRoy Prinz, the son of her former dance teacher in Missouri. During the Depression years, she continued to get bit parts in films, earning money her family sorely needed.
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Wyman returned to the movies in 1959 with "Holiday for Lovers" and the following year starred in Disney's "Pollyanna," playing the cold aunt Polly. Wyman's last film, "Marriage," came in 1969 when she co-starred with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason.
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