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Fern Persons

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Occupation
  
Actress

Name
  
Fern Persons


Role
  
Film actress

Children
  
Nancy Rockafellow

Fern Persons wwwsagaftraorgfilessagimagespersonsfernjpg

Full Name
  
Fern Gwendolyn Ball

Born
  
July 27, 1910 (
1910-07-27
)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Died
  
July 22, 2012, Denver, Colorado, United States

Spouse
  
Max Persons (m. 1935–1971)

Education
  
Carnegie Mellon University

Movies
  
Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, Class, Risky Business, Under the Bilt Clock

Similar People
  
David Anspaugh, Phil Alden Robinson, Paul Brickman

Fern Gwendolyn Persons (née Ball; July 27, 1910 – July 22, 2012) was an American film and television actress and a member of the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists from 1937 until her death. Her film credits included Field of Dreams and Hoosiers.

Contents

Fern Persons Fern Persons actor and union activist dies tribunedigital

Persons served on the national board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1976–98. She also sat on SAG's Chicago Branch Council for 44 years and the AFTRA Chicago Local Board for more than thirty years. Much of her work at SAG and AFTRA focused on improving the professional acting opportunities for older actors.

Life and career

Fern Gwendolyn Ball was born in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan as a young girl with her family. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in drama from Kalamazoo College in 1933. She later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts of acting from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now called Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from both colleges. She was also awarded the Otto Kahn Prize for excellence in acting at Carnegie.

Ball met her future husband, Max Persons, while both were college students. They married in 1935. Once she graduated from Carnegie, Persons worked in Detroit in radio for a short period. The family, which now included a newborn daughter, then moved to Chicago so Persons could pursue her acting career in the latter half of the 1930s.

Persons joined Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1937 and became the fifth member of the SAG Chicago Branch when she joined in 1953. She was elected to the Chicago Branch Council in 1962 and served for forty-four years until 2006, when she stepped down only because she could no longer drive. She also served more than thirty years on the AFTRA Chicago Local Board. Persons was elected to the SAG National Board in 1976, and served on that body until 1998. During that time, from 1977–81, she was elected SAG 5th national vice president. She served as a SAG Regional Branch Division representative on TV/Theatrical and Commercials negotiating committees throughout the 1980s and intermittently through the 1990s.

Personal life

Fern Ball married Max Persons in October 1935 and remained married for thirty-six years until his death in November 1971. On July 27, 1999, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley officially declared "Fern Persons Day" to mark her 89th birthday. The day honored her contributions to the Chicago arts and acting communities. Persons had previously resided in Evanston, Illinois. Persons moved to Colorado in 2010 to be closer to her daughter.

Death

She died in her sleep on July 22, 2012, five days before her 102nd birthday in Littleton, Colorado. She was survived by her daughter, Nancy Rockafellow, three grandsons and six great-grandchildren.

Films
Television

Filmography

Actress
2010
The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas (Podcast Series)
- Mrs. Pierce is Praying for Me (2010) - (voice)
2004
Boricua as
Hilde Klingenberg (as Fern Parsons)
2001
The Secret as
Great Aunt Daria
1999
ER (TV Series) as
Old Woman on El
- Power (1999) - Old Woman on El
1997
Early Edition (TV Series) as
Mrs. Flowers, Librarian / Helen
- Home Groan (1999) - Mrs. Flowers, Librarian
- Psychic (1997) - Helen
1993
Missing Persons (TV Series) as
Althea Swanson
- Pilot (1993) - Althea Swanson
1992
Prelude to a Kiss as
Elderly Woman
1992
Mario and the Mob (TV Movie)
1989
Field of Dreams as
Annie's Mother
1987
Sable (TV Series) as
Rebecca Sable
- Watchdogs (1987) - Rebecca Sable
1987
Jack and Mike (TV Series) as
Elsie
- Dreamland (1987) - Elsie
1986
Hoosiers as
Opal Fleener
1984
American Playhouse (TV Series) as
Aunt Vera
- Under the Biltmore Clock (1984) - Aunt Vera
1984
The Impostor (TV Movie)
1984
Grandview, U.S.A. as
Teacher
1984
Hard Knox (TV Movie)
1983
Risky Business as
Lab Teacher
1983
Class as
Headmistress DeBreul
1981
Hudson Taylor
1981
Chicago Story (TV Movie)
1981
On the Right Track as
Flower Lady
1967
Man of Steel
1957
Cavalcade of America (TV Series) as
Mrs. Hubbard
- Chicago 2-1-2 (1957) - Mrs. Hubbard
1956
Adventure in Dairyland (TV Series) as
Mrs. McCandless
- Off to Wisconsin (1956) - Mrs. McCandless (uncredited)
1952
Those Endearing Young Charms (TV Series) as
Abbe Charm
1950
The Golden Gloves Story as
Mrs. Burke

References

Fern Persons Wikipedia