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Kathryn Adams Doty

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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.
Occupation(s)Actress, novelist, psychologist
Years active1939–1946 (acting career)
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1942; div. 1974)​
  • Fred Doty
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1976; died 2011)​
Children3

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.

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 capella 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 5th Avenue Girl (1939).[2] One of her most 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 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, 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

Adams Doty wrote two novels: A Long Year of Silence and Wild Orphan. 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, described her life growing up as a minister's daughter and 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]

References

  1. ^ a b "Former Warrenton Girl in Movies". St. Clair Chronicle. Missouri, St. Clair. November 23, 1939. p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. Open access icon
  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. Open access icon
  4. ^ Fitzgerald, Mike. "Kathryn Adams Interview". Western Clippings. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  5. ^ a b c 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. Open access icon
  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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