Temple, Shirley (1928-2014), was one of the most popular child stars in motion-picture history. She was known for her curly blond locks, her bright personality, and her spirited singing and tap dancing.
Shirley Jane Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California. She made her movie debut at the age of 3 and became a star in the 1934 film musical Stand Up and Cheer. Temple made about 25 movies during the 1930’s, including Bright Eyes (featuring her trademark song, “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and Little Miss Marker (both 1934), The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Dimples and Poor Little Rich Girl (both 1936), Heidi (1937), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), and The Little Princess (1939). She played teenage roles in many movies during the 1940’s, including Since You Went Away (1944), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), and The Story of Seabiscuit (1949). But these films were not as popular as her earlier pictures.
Temple was married to the American actor John Agar from 1945 to 1949. She retired from motion pictures in 1949. Temple married Charles A. Black in 1950. She came to be known as Shirley Temple Black. In 1967, Temple Black ran for the United States House of Representatives as a Republican candidate in California but lost. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon appointed her a U.S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford named her the U.S. ambassador to Ghana. In 1976 and 1977, she was chief of protocol in the Department of State, the first woman to hold that post. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed her ambassador to Czechoslovakia. She held that post until 1992. Temple Black died on Feb. 10, 2014.
