Shirley Temple Black, Former Child Star, Dies at 85 Years Old

Shirley Temple Black, former child star who grew up to be an ambassador, has died at the age of 85 at her home in California. Shirley’s movies as a singing, tap-dancing child with a mop of golden ringlets, were top box office in the 1930s and continued to be enjoyed by generations of youngsters.

Favorite Shirley Temple Movies

Known as America’s Little Darling, Shirley was the unquestioned star of a string of movies in the 1930s, that featured veteran actors such Adolphe Menjou, Buddy Ebsen, Jean Hersholt, Cesar Romero, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lionel Barrymore and many others. Shirley showcased her singing and dancing talents in many films with tunes such as “The Good Ship Lollipop” and “You Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby,” with Jack Haley and Alice Faye.

 
Shirley’s film career ebbed as she grew older, despite roles in films with Cary Grant (The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer), Ronald Reagan (That Hagen Girl), and John Wayne and Henry Fonda (Fort Apache). Shirley married John Agar Jr., just before her 17th birthday on Sept. 19, 1945. The couple had one daughter, Linda Susan, in 1948 but began divorce proceedings a year later. After their divorce was finalized in 1950, she married Charles Alden Black, president of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. They had 2 children, Charles, Jr. and Lori. Their marriage lasted almost 55 years, until his death in 2005.

When her films were being shown on television in the late 1950s, Shirley Temple took a turn on the small screen, hosting “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” from 1958 to 1961, which featured adaptations of fairy tales that she would occasionally perform in.

Mrs. Black had become interested in politics when she lived in Washington. In 1967 she ran for Congress to fill a seat left vacant by the death of the Republican J. Arthur Younger. She hoped to emulate the California political successes of George Murphy, her dancing partner in “Little Miss Broadway,” who had become a United States senator, and Ronald Reagan, her co-star in “That Hagen Girl,” who had become governor.

A backer of the Vietnam War, she lost to a more moderate Republican, Pete McCloskey, in the suburban 11th Congressional District south of San Francisco. It probably did not help that the bands kept playing “On the Good Ship Lollipop” at her campaign stops.

Temple’s involvement in civic and community affairs eventually led to a greater interest in public service. Beginning in 1974, she was appointed to various posts by a string of Presidents, beginning with Nixon. President Ford appointed her Ambassador to Ghana. She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the US in 1976, and was in charge of President Carter’s inauguration and inaugural ball. In 1989 President Bush appointed her Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. She served in that post until 1992.

Temple is survived by her 3 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black,” the family said in a statement.