Jane Withers was an American actress and children’s radio show host know all about him in this article as like her Family, Net Worth, Parents, Husband, Children and Career
| Bio | |
| Name | Jane Withers |
| Birthdate ( Age) | 12 April 1926, |
| Place of Birth | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Husband/Partner | Kenneth Errair (m. 1955–1968), Bill Moss (m. 1947–1955) |
| Children | 5 |
| Parents | Lavinia Ruth Withers, Walter Withers |
| Profession | American actress and children’s radio show host |
| Net Worth | $4Million |
| Last Update | August 2021 |
Jane Withers was an American actress and children’s radio show host. She became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, with her films ranking in the top ten list for box-office gross in 1937 and 1938.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, she did voice work for Disney animated films. She was interviewed in numerous documentary retrospectives of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was also known for her philanthropy and her extensive doll collection.
Early Life and Family
Jane Withers was born on April 12, 1926, in Atlanta, Georgia, the only child of Walter Edward Withers and Lavinia Ruth (née Elble) Withers.Ruth had had her own aspirations to be an actress nixed by her parents.She determined before Jane was born that she would have one daughter who would go into show business, and chose the name Jane so that “even with a long last name like Withers, it would fit on a marquee”.
Ruth taught Sunday school and Walter taught Bible classes in their local Presbyterian church.The family recited blessings at mealtime and devoted themselves to charitable works, which stood with Jane her entire life.Both in Atlanta and in Hollywood, the family would invite “six busloads of orphan children” to come to their home after church and Sunday school for lunch and afternoon entertainment.
When Jane was two, Ruth enrolled her in a tap dance school,and also taught her to sing.Jane launched her entertainment career at the age of three after winning a local amateur contest called Dixie’s Dainty Dewdrop.
Jane Withers Husband
In May 1947, Withers announced her engagement to William (Bill) Moss, a Texas entrepreneur and film producer, after a two-year courtship.They married on September 20, 1947.The couple lived on ranches in Midland, Texas, and New Mexico with their three children.They separated in April 1953 and Withers was granted a divorce in July 1954, citing her husband’s “excessive drinking and gambling”.
In June 1968, Errair died in a plane crash near Bass Lake, California.One of Withers’s sons later succumbed to cancer.
Jane Withers Net Worth
Jane Withers was an American actress and children’s radio show host who has an estimated Net Worth of between $4 million. The earnings listed mainly come from her salary and brand endorsements.
Professional Career
In the early 1940s, Hollywood’s child-star genre that had catapulted Withers to fame was on the decline.Her popularity in comedy films also hindered her acceptance as a dramatic actress in films such as The North Star (1943).Withers retired from film at age 21 in 1947, shortly after completing Danger Street and nine days before her marriage to William Moss, a Texas entrepreneur and film producer.She had starred in 38 films.
A month after Jane’s twenty-first birthday, her mother Ruth appeared in a California Superior Court and listed her daughter’s assets as $40,401.85 (equivalent to $470,000 in 2020). The judge turned the property over to Jane’s control.The same month, her parents turned over to her the deed to their home, valued at $250,000 (equivalent to $2,900,000 in 2020), and other real estate worth $75,000, plus annuities totaling $10,000, all purchased from Withers’s earnings.
In late 1944, Withers made her stage debut in the musical comedy Glad To See You directed by Busby Berkeley. The show, intended for Broadway, closed after seven weeks of tryouts in Philadelphia and Boston. Withers sang the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn torch song “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” written for the play; this was soon after covered by Frank Sinatra and Kate Smith and became a jazz and pop standard.In 1971, Withers co-starred in the Broadway musical comedy Sure, Sure, Shirley which also brought Shirley Temple Black out of retirement. The performance, which featured a tap dancing sequence with 50 chorus dancers, was staged as an opening-night benefit for diabetics.
Withers engaged in philanthropy throughout her life. As a child star, she visited orphanages and hospitals to perform for other children.In 1937, she created 400 dolls using scraps she had recovered from the 20th Century Fox wardrobe department and gave them to needy children at Christmas.During World War II, she participated in more than 100 war bond drives and soldiers’ camp tours in the United States.
She also sent her personal doll collection—then numbering some 3,500 dolls—on a two-year tour which raised $2.5 million in funds for the U.S. war effort through 10-cent war savings stamp admissions. She involved President Roosevelt in this initiative, requesting from him the loan of a train on which she had the dolls arranged in museum-like displays to be seen by children across the country.
