Olive Blakeney

Born in Bellevue, Kentucky,^[2] Blakeley was the daughter of Emma (née Juell) and John W. Blakeney.^[1][2][3] She graduated from Bellevue High School, where her principal extracurricular activity appears to have been basketball, while primarily pursuing her theatrical studies across the Ohio River in Cincinnati; first at the Cincinnati School of Expression,^[4] and later at the Schuster-Martin School.^[2]

In the early 1910s, Blakeney acted with the Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Stock Company.^[5] Her work in the Empire Theater there in 1912 was her stage debut.^[6] In 1914, she was engaged with the Lucille La Verne stock theater company.^[7] After working as William Gaxton's partner in vaudeville, she acted on stage in England. While there, she helped to introduce the play Broadway to British audiences.^[8] Her Broadway credits include The Royal Family (1951) and The Browning Version / Harlequinade (1949).^[9]

Blakeney made her screen debut in England in 1932.^{[citation needed]} She portrayed Mrs. Alice Aldrich, the mother of Henry Aldrich, in eight (seven of which were consecutive) films about The Aldrich Family. (She played a related role, Mary Aldrich, in a ninth related film, Henry and Dizzy.)^[10]

On television, she played the housekeeper in the syndicated medical drama Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal (1955–1956)^[11] and guest-starred in "The Mothers," a 1957 episode of the CBS situation comedy Mr. Adams and Eve, and "Mr. Tutt," also known as "Strange Counsel," a 1958 episode of Colgate Theatre.

In June 1915, Blakeney married John Wilmot Crosby of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Fort Thomas, Kentucky).^[1][12]

In 1927, Blakeney married actor Bernard Nedell^[8] and they had a daughter, Betty Lou,^[6] later dubbed by the Associated Press, "the first American child baptized in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle and at the same font where King Charles II was christened".^[13]

On October 21, 1959, Blakeney died in Encino, California at the age of 65,^[14] due to complications of cancer.^{[citation needed]} Her cremated remains are inurned together with those of her husband in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.^[15]