Jan. 14, 1965 - Red-haired soprano Jeanette MacDonald (left in 1955 with husband Gene Raymond), 57, who starred with Nelson Eddy in many popular Hollywood movies in the 1930s, died today in Houston’s Methodist Hospital minutes after whispering a farewell “I love you” to her husband, actor Gene Raymond.
Raymond, who married her in 1937, was the only visitor permitted at her bedside in the two days since she arrived at the hospital for treatment of a failing heart.
Open heart surgery under famed surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey had been under consideration, but Miss MacDonald died before a decision could be made.
Weakened by illness, Miss MacDonald was fed intravenously this afternoon. Suddenly, she looked up to Raymond standing by her bedside and said, “I love you.” “I love you,” he replied. They were the last words the couple exchanged.
Miss MacDonald began her screen career when the talkies were in their infancy and after a swift rise to fame on Broadway.
She won her greatest fame in a dozen musical spectaculars as co-star with baritone Nelson Eddy. They were first paired in 1935 in “Naughty Marietta.”
In Hollywood today, Eddy said he was “shocked and deeply distressed” by the death of his screen partner.
The team of MacDonald and Eddy made its last film together in 1942, and then they went their separate ways. They made on joint appearance on television in 1956, and two years later a selection of their best known songs was released in a record album.
Miss MacDonald resumed her screen career in 1947 with “The Birds and the Bees” and made guest appearances on television, often in straight dramatic roles. She also made an operatic debut and toured the nation many times giving concerts.
Her health began to fail more than four years ago, friends said, and she had been in virtual retirement in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she and Raymond made their home. They had no children.
Eddy said he had talked with her a week ago and had made a date to have dinner with her and her husband.
“Even then, I didn’t know her condition was so bad,” he said. “Many of our friends that we worked with are gone. You accept it. But Jeannette MacDonald — you just can’t accept it.”

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments