Beverly Jean Stovenour (June Haver), actress: born Rock Island, Illinois 10 June 1926; married 1947 Jimmy Zito (marriage dissolved), 1954 Fred MacMurray (died 1991; two adopted daughters); died Brentwood, California 4 July 2005. One of the brightest musical stars of the late Forties, June Haver was a pretty blonde whose memorable roles included those of Rosie Dolly in The Dolly Sisters (1945) and the legendary Marilyn Miller in Look for the Silver Lining (1949). A former band singer, she developed into a splendid dancer, performing sparkling duets with such tap experts as Gene Nelson and Ray Bolger. Although her personal life had its share of tragedy, and she spent some time in a convent, she ultimately enjoyed a long marriage to the actor Fred MacMurray. She was born Beverly Jean Stovenour in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1926, but her parents divorced when she was a baby and she took the surname of her stepfather, Bert Haver.
A child prodigy with a determined mother, she made her stage d?t at the age of six in a show called Midnight in a Toy Shop. Her younger sister Evelyn recalled that she was "pretty as a Dresden doll" but "very self-assured". At the age of seven, June played the piano with Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and by 1937 she had her own radio show From 1939 she sang with a series of bands. "Every time a bandleader came to town," she said,I'd march to his hotel armed with my scrapbook. I'd tell him that he could get a lot of publicity if he would let me sing with his band for his one night stand in our town.She made her screen d?t in 1942, singing in four shorts made by Universal.
Given a contract with 20th Century-Fox, she made her feature film d?t as a hat-check girl in the lavish Busby Berkeley musical The Gang's All Here (1943). Another newcomer, Jeanne Crain, also had a one-line role in the film, and the studio then cast them with Lon McCallister in Home in Indiana (1944). The Technicolored family film showcased the fresh beauty of the two girls, with Crain playing the unaffected tomboy and Haver the glamour girl who vies with Crain for McCallister's affection.Haver had star billing in Irish Eyes are Smiling (1944), a biography of the songwriter Ernest Ball (played by Dick Haymes). In the offbeat musical Where Do We Go From Here?, set in three different periods of American history, Haver was one of two girls encountered by the hero (Fred MacMurray) in all the episodes - Joan Leslie was the other. Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin wrote the score.The next five years were to be the peak of Haver's career. She co-starred with Fox's biggest attraction, Betty Grable, in the lavish musical biography of the Hungarian siblings, The Dolly Sisters (1945), an enormous hit, although Grable's was the meatier role.