Virginia Davis

 Virginia Davis (December 31, 1918 – August 15, 2009)

Davis began working for Walt Disney's Kansas City company, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, in 1923. She was hired to act in a film called Alice's Wonderland, which combined live action with animation. When Laugh-O-Gram failed and Disney moved to Los Angeles, on the basis of Alice's Wonderland Winkler Pictures signed Disney for a series known as the Alice Comedies, or Alice in Cartoonland. Disney convinced Davis' family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series. In 1925, Davis played the role of Resi in The Greater Glory, a First National Pictures production. While filming The Greater Glory, Davis signed a contract with Harry Carey and the two actors worked together in The Man From Red Gulch (1925). Over the next 20 years, she went on to work at other Hollywood studios as a child actress and, later, as a supporting actress. She sang, danced, and acted in such films as Flying Down to Rio (1933), Young and Beautiful (1934), College Holiday (1936), Vivacious Lady (1938), Three on a Match (1932), Week-End in Havana (1941), Song of the Islands (1942) and The Harvey Girls (1946) among others. On several occasions, she used the screen name Mary Daily. During her Hollywood tenure, she also occasionally worked for her old boss, Walt Disney, did a vocal test for Snow White, voiced some supporting characters in Pinocchio and served a short stint in the Disney Studio's Ink-and-Paint department. In 1943, she married Navy aviator Robert McGhee, and the couple had two daughters. During their 59-year marriage, they resided in New Jersey, Connecticut, Southern California, and Idaho.

After a year of failing health, Davis-McGhee died of natural causes in her home in Corona, California on August 15, 2009, aged 90. She is interred with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.