My journey ends here...


  •          HOME PAGE
  • BIOGRAPHY
  • FILES
  • BOOKS
  • LINKS
  • COMMENTS
  • S

GODDARD Ervin

 

Ervin Silliman Goddard ; "Doc".

 

Date of birth : January 30, 1904, Holland, Texas.

Date of death : December 4, 1972, Ventura, California, from a car accident.

 

Practise: engineer in charge of research at the Adel Precison Products Company (231 South Olive Street, Burbank and 1444 Washington Avenue à Huntington, Virginia).

 

Portrait : 

 

 

Places of living : 

in 1926 : 2711 Guadalupe Street, Austin

in 1928 : 307 W, 18th Street, Austin, Texas

in 1930 : Fort Worth, Texas

in 1940 : Los Angeles.

Story

Native to Texas, he was divorced with Eleanor Barbara Roeck (they got married on June 18, 1925), and father of 3 children to support.

It's said that he looked like the actor Randolph scott; he was an etxra and made some stand-in, among them, the one of a soldier-toy with pink cheeks in "Babes in Toyland" of Laurel and Hardy.

Spring 1935 : Grace McKee met him; the exact circumstances of their meeting are unknown, but a violent passion came up between them.

He was 10 years younger than Grace.

His charm, his warmth and his dreams about a movie fame alternated with laziness phases which took him to the nearest bar for endless discussions with the regulars.

Such a man could only be seduced by Grace's energy that he found contagious, by his passionnate nature he found gratifying and by her supports and her adoration he found irresistible. Grace became infatuated with the strong young man, so handsome that she described him as a movie star. All the more so as he showed a passionate attention and that he wasn't stingy of compliments. Close from each other, they were hardly funny : she was 40 centimeters less than him, she was slim and slender, he was the typical healthy cow-boy. They had enough joie de vivre to make fun of their own couple or to laugh about Grace's age, and the extravagant happiness of their mutual presence made their friends happy.

They got married on August 10, 1935 in Las Vegas (), at Grace's aunt home, Minnie Willette (sister of Emma Atchinson) who was their bridesmaid.

Picture with Grace : 

 

He met Norma Jeane in 1935.

From his previous wedding with Eleanor Roeck, he had 3 children : Eleanor (called Bebe) (December 17, 1926 - February 11, 2000), John Frederick (born Ervin Roeck Goddard) (June 4, 1928, Austin, Texas - January 10, 1983,

Los Angeles : ) and Nona Josephine (October 19, 1930, Fort Worth, Texas - July 10, 1986, Ojai, California). 

Josephine would be an actress known as Jody Lawrence.

There would have been an indecent assault episode towards Norma Jeane; Jim Dougherty confirmed this incident because she had told him about it.

In April 1942, he was promoted head of the commercial service of the Adel Precison Products Company and moved in Huntington, Virginia.

Years later he offered Marilyn to be his manager but she refused.

It's not known if they met each other after 1945.

After Grace's death, he remarried twice : with Anna Alice Long, then with Annie Rundle.

Letter from Berniece Miracle dated September 8, 1954 : .

He died on December 4, 1972 with Annie Rundle in a car acident in Ventura.

                                                                                                                                              BACK TO ALPHABETICAL INDEX                                                                                                                                                                  NEXT FILE

K&K- 04/2006 - Contact