MARCH 4, 2024 UPDATE: We just received word from family that Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Brodel Franzalia passed away early Sunday morning, March 3, 2024, peacefully, at age 104. She lived an amazingly wonderful life and will be greatly missed by many.
May God bless and comfort all her loved ones we pray.
Elizabeth (Betty) Ann Brodel Franzalia, my second cousin and older sister to actress, Joan Leslie, turned 100 years old on February 5, 2020!
Betty along with sisters Mary and Joan were actresses in Hollywood. The youngest of the three changed her name to Joan Leslie and was the most sucessful.
Betty was in the following movies: 'Swing Hostess' (1944), 'Too Young to Know' (1945), 'Cinderella Jones' (Uncredited)(1946), 'Hollywood Canteen' (Uncredited)(1944), 'Cover Girl'(Uncredited)(1944) and a couple of more.
She married Joe Franzalia in 1948 and he passed away in 1999.
And a few more photos of Betty...Joan Leslie, Gary Cooper, Mary Brodel, Betty Brodel 1941 - Joan and Gary working on movie Sergeant York
Betty is in the back, second from left, Joan Leslie is far left, my mother Joyce Hearn Palmer is third from right and her sister, Pat Hearn Hibben is second from right... all cousins.
Sisters Mary Myrl Brodel Russom (1916-2015), Joan Agnes Brodel Leslie Caldwell (1925-2015) and Elizabeth Betty Ann Brodel Franazlia
FEBRUARY 3, 2024 UPDATE
Here is the Feb 4, 2020, article previously mentioned above:
Some
of the 787 birthday cards Betty Franzalia has received so far hang on
her wall. Franzalia, who turns 100 on Feb. 5, loves receiving mail and
her daughter, Toni Davis, asked for the public’s help in getting her 100
cards to celebrate her 100th birthday.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The
goal was to get Berry Franzalia 100 cards for her 100th birthday on
Wednesday. Locals have sent her nearly 800 as of Monday morning.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Betty
Franzalia, who turns 100 on Feb. 5, is pictured with some of the
birthday cards she has received so far. Franzalia’s daughter, Toni
Davis, said her mother loves receiving mail and wanted help to make her
100th birthday special by asking people to send her a birthday card.
Made some new genealogy discoveries this weekend! Found passports online for my grandfather, John Hearn (born O'Hearn) and his wife, Mary. He had been in Costa Rica 3 months working on a government deal for nuts which were used to make carbon filters for gas masks in the war. I never knew any of this. Sadly, the following January, pregnant Mary died of the flu.
My father's family came from Germany as well as England, John Howland being a Mayflower passenger along with his future wife, Elizabeth Tilley, her parents and aunt and uncle (Read more here)
ADDITIONAL PALMER INFO
O'HEARN
Later changed by grandfather John/Jack to HEARN
The O'Hearn family from Ireland has the motto: Per Ardua Surgo – I Rise through Difficulties
My mother's family came from Ireland as well as England
Fluffy
Betty is in the back, second from left, Joan Leslie is far left, my mother Joyce Hearn Palmer is third from right and her sister, Pat Hearn Hibben is second from right... all cousins.
Sisters Mary Myrl Brodel Russom (1916-2015), Joan Agnes Brodel Leslie Caldwell (1925-2015) and Elizabeth Betty Ann Brodel Franazlia
Elizabeth (Betty) Ann Brodel Franzalia, my second cousin and older sister to actress, Joan Leslie, turned 100 years old on February 5, 2020! 
Joan Leslie, Gary Cooper, Mary Brodel, Betty Brodel 1941 - Joan and Gary working on movie Sergeant York
Betty is in the back, second from left, Joan Leslie is far left, my mother Joyce Hearn Palmer is third from right and her sister, Pat Hearn Hibben is second from right... all cousins.
