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A WOMAN OF GREAT FAITH |
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The Woman Inside 'Blondie'
who prayed beside me
By ANN JILLIAN
of TheColumnists.com
I'm sure there will be others reminding us of all the professional credits of actress Penny Singleton, who died this past week at age 95. I’d like to give you my impressions and observations of Penny Singleton, the person.
I never had the opportunity to work with Penny as an actress, but I did get to pray with her very often at our Church. Being a parishioner at St. Francis De Sales Church, here in Sherman Oaks, California, is, for most of us, more like being a member of an extended family. It's a "huggy" sort of Parish, which I enjoy a lot--and that means we miss each other terribly as the years take their toll.
I first met Penny Singleton (whose birth name was Dorothy McNulty) after Mass one Sunday in the 1980s She attended Mass regularly until the 1990’s when her fragile health no longer would permit it. Father Jerry O’Mahoney and a dear friend, Peter Thompson, took turns taking Communion to Penny at her residence each week. I've missed seeing her fabulous face. Peter Thompson told me that one of Penny's children, her daughter, Dorothy, looked after her dear Mother in her Sherman Oaks residence.
Penny was always a very
friendly woman with a lovely smile and she had the most beautiful
skin a woman of any age could ever want! It would be difficult
to detect if she even wore make up at all.
There were times when we sat near each other at Mass and had
occasion to greet each other. Penny wasn't just being friendly
to me because we both held Screen Actors Guild cards. She was
friendly to everyone. Many people didn't have a clue who this
lovely lady was professionally, but that didn’t make any
difference since they liked the person. Penny always had a smile
and a cheery hello for anyone who came near. She dressed so tastefully,
and her blond hair outlined her happy face “just right.”
Her skin was flawlessly beautiful.
Without a doubt Penny was
still the "Blondie" all of us who ever held a bleach
bottle wanted to look like as the years rolled by. She was, indeed,
a “doll.” My husband, Andy, told me that he thought
I was going to look like Penny when I got older.
“That would be fine by me,” I told him. “Let’s
pray for it!”
Penny was accessible to people. She always took time to chat or take a photo with a fan or just one of us fellow parishioners. (I know I have some “snap’s” taken with Penny, they’re in my home someplace…now if I could just find them!)
I promised to tell you what kind of person Penny Singleton was. Well, I think you can tell a lot about a person by how they pray. Seeing Penny pray all these years gave me the distinct feeling that she was in love with her God. My guess is that she prayed for her family, friends and those in need. But I’d bet she also prayed to say thanks to God for her many blessings. She just struck me as a person grateful for life itself.
I’d say Penny was one of the more intelligent actresses of our business because she knew what was really important in the long run. While the Hollywood "spotlight" is nice when one is talented enough to have it, as Penny did during her tenure, it is not the “end all.” I believe, in my heart of hearts, that Penny Singleton knew this and that's why she was at Mass praying. I believe she had placed her faith in God and I'm positive that Jesus Christ delivered on His promise when He called her home.
Penny Singleton was a woman
who had faith, and we will miss her presence. I believe the greatest
"light" of love is shining on her now, in paradise.
©2003 by Ann Jillian Murcia.
TO READ
RON MILLER'S COLUMN ABOUT PENNY SINGLETON, CLICK HERE: BLONDIE.
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