Kathryn Adams Doty

Kathryn Elizabeth Doty (née Hohn; July 15, 1920 – October 14, 2016), also known by her stage name Kathryn Adams or as Kathryn Adams Doty, was an American actress.

Kathryn Adams Doty
Born
Kathryn Elizabeth Hohn

(1920-07-15)July 15, 1920
New Ulm, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedOctober 14, 2016(2016-10-14) (aged 96)
Mankato, Minnesota, U.S.
OccupationActress, novelist, psychologist
Years active1939–1946 (acting career)
Spouse(s)
  • Hugh Beaumont
    (m. 1941; div. 1974)
  • Fred Doty
    (m. 1976; died 2011)
Children3

Early years

The daughter of a Methodist minister, Dr. Chris G. Hohn,[1] Doty was born in New Ulm, Minnesota. When she was 6,[2] the family moved to Warrenton, Missouri,[1] where her father was chaplain and executive secretary at an orphan's home.[2] After she developed lung problems, she spent two years at a camp in Minnesota. As early as age 13, she took her father's place in the pulpit when he was sick. In a 1939 newspaper article, she recalled: "It was quite a radical thing, in that small town, for a little girl to conduct the church services and preach the sermon, but the congregation understood and were very kind to me."[2]

Doty was a student at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, (where she sang in the a cappella choir)[2] and worked as a catalog clerk at the headquarters of Montgomery Ward[3] when an opportunity for an acting career arose. She competed in 1939 in the national finals of the Jesse L. Lasky radio contest Gateway to Hollywood, received a contract,[2] and remained in California to begin a film career under the name of Kathryn Adams.

Film

Doty debuted on film in Fifth Avenue Girl (1939).[2] One of her more notable roles was as Mrs. Brown, the young mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942).[4] She co-starred in Sky Raiders (1941), a film serial from Universal Pictures and had the leading lady role in three Western films in which Johnny Mack Brown starred.[5]

Personal life

She married fellow actor Hugh Beaumont in an Easter wedding on April 13, 1941 at Hollywood Congregational Church.[6] They had three children: Hunter, Kristy, and Mark. After divorcing Beaumont in 1974, she married Fred Doty, and relocated to her native Minnesota. Fred Doty (1922 – 2011) died on January 8, 2011, aged 88.

She earned a master's degree in educational psychology and had a career as a psychologist, working at the Footlight's Child Guidance Clinic at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and later in Minnesota after she moved back to her home state.[5]

Writing

While in her 80s, Adams Doty wrote two novels, both for young adult readers: A Long Year of Silence (2004) and Wild Orphan (2006). A Long Year of Silence, set in New Ulm, Minnesota, during World War I, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and winner of the 2005 Midwest Book Award. A third book, Becoming the Mother of Me (2009), described her life growing up as a minister's daughter, her trip to Hollywood and her first marriage.

Writing as Kathryn Doty, she published short stories in Pocket, The Friend and various children's magazines.[5]

Death

Adams died on October 14, 2016, aged 96.[7][8]

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Former Warrenton Girl in Movies". St. Clair Chronicle. Missouri, St. Clair. November 23, 1939. p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Clark, W.K. (September 17, 1939). "Prepared for Screen Stardom in the Pulpit!". The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah, Salt Lake City. p. 77. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Othman, Frederick C. (April 15, 1940). "Hollywood Day By Day". The Danville Morning News. Pennsylvania, Danville. United Press. p. 2. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Fitzgerald, Mike. "Kathryn Adams Interview". Western Clippings. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  5. Fitzgerald, Michael G.; Magers, Boyd (2006). Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. McFarland. pp. 9–13. ISBN 9780786426560. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  6. "News Briefs". The Daily Reporter. Indiana, Greenfield. International News Service. April 14, 1941. p. 4. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Gelt, Jessica (22 October 2016). "Kathryn Adams Doty, actress in Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' dies at 96". Los Angeles Times.
  8. Barnes, Mike (22 October 2016). "Kathryn Adams, Actress in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' Dies at 96". The Hollywood Reporter. ISSN 0018-3660.
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