Merna Kennedy

She was born in Kankakee, one of two children to Maud (née Reed) and John Kahler, a German-American butcher turned chiropractor. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to California, where she married a grocer two years later, and changed their name to Kennedy. At the outbreak of World War I, their mother prepped seven-year-old Merna and brother Melvin (known as Merle) to tour as a dancing and singing sibling act on the Orpheum and Pantages theater circuits of vaudeville, where she became acquainted with Lita Grey.^[2] Merle broke his leg ending the duo, prompting Grey to suggest silent films to Merna.^[2]

Kennedy was best known during her brief career for her role opposite Charlie Chaplin in the silent film The Circus (1928), a role for which she was brought to the attention of Chaplin by her friend Lita Grey, who became Chaplin's second wife in 1924.^[3] She had red hair^[4] and muscular legs (due to being a dancer,) the latter of which helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider.

Kennedy continued acting after The Circus, starring in early sound films, but retired in 1934 when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley on February 10, 1934^[5] at Hollywood United Methodist Church.^[6] Their marriage broke up by 1936.^[2]

Kennedy died at age 36 of a heart attack on December 20, 1944, four days after her marriage to Master Sergeant Forrest Brayton.^[7] She is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.^[8]