Remembering CARYLL ANN EKELUND

IN MEMORIUM: Nov. 3, 1939 ~It was 85 years ago Hollywood lost a tiny angel in film industry. At just 4½ years old, and with one brief screen appearance in a solo film, little CARYLL ANN EKELUND's short life was extinguished in a tragic Halloween accent. She was born in the rural hamlet of northern California's Cottonwood in the shadows of nearby Mount Shasta. Her parents had plans to try film business for their young family. A favorite film in Caryll Ann was "The Wizard of Oz", which debuted just 10 weeks before her death, which she relished with her five older siblings, who affectionately called her 'Sissy'. She was thrilled in being apart of the magic of playing for the movies. It didn't take long to be cast in a film much like the "Wizard of Oz", called "The Blue Bird". A fantasy film starring the popular Shirley Temple, was also filmed in both black and white, and in color. Four-year-old Caryll Ann Ekelund appears as an unborn child in the film, who is impatient to wait her turn to be given her gift of life. Though her role was only a minute of screen time and with no spoken words, her sweet cherub face was forever remembered for generations of film audiences. Her early passing forever immortalized her, never forgotten nearly a century later. According to Shirley Temple, her co-star in The Blue Bird (1940), in her autobiography "Child Star," she was killed after a lighted birthday candle at home ignited her dress and burned her to death. Her five older brothers acted as pallbearers while a graveside quartet sung her favorite song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939) when she was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Her burial shroud was the unborn child toga from her role in The Blue Bird (1940), who was released posthumously just 8 weeks later.