Kathryn Adams Doty | |
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Born | Kathryn Elizabeth Hohn July 15, 1920
New Ulm, Minnesota, U.S. |
Died | October 14, 2016 | (aged 96)
Alma mater | Hamline University |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1939–1946 (acting career) |
Spouses |
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Children | 3 |
Kathryn Elizabeth Doty (née Hohn; July 15, 1920 – October 14, 2016), also known by her stage name Kathryn Adams or as Kathryn Adams Doty, was an American actress, novelist and psychologist.
The daughter of a Methodist minister, Dr. Chris G. Hohn, [3] Doty was born in New Ulm, Minnesota. When she was six, [4] the family moved to Warrenton, Missouri, [3] where her father was chaplain and executive secretary at an orphans' home. [4] After she developed lung problems, she spent two years at a camp in Minnesota. As early as age 13, she took her father's place in the pulpit when he was sick. In a 1939 newspaper article, she recalled: "It was quite a radical thing, in that small town, for a little girl to conduct the church services and preach the sermon, but the congregation understood and were very kind to me." [4]
Doty was a student at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, (where she sang in the a cappella choir) [4] and worked as a catalog clerk at the headquarters of Montgomery Ward [5] when an opportunity for an acting career arose. She competed in 1939 in the national finals of the Jesse L. Lasky radio contest Gateway to Hollywood, received a contract, [4] and remained in California to begin a film career under the name of Kathryn Adams.
Doty debuted on film in Fifth Avenue Girl (1939). [4] One of her more notable roles was as Mrs. Brown, the young mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942). [6] She co-starred in Sky Raiders (1941), a film serial from Universal Pictures, and had the leading lady role in three Western films in which Johnny Mack Brown starred. [7]
She married fellow actor Hugh Beaumont in an Easter wedding on April 13, 1941, at Hollywood Congregational Church. [8]
She earned a master's degree in educational psychology and had a career as a psychologist, working at the Footlight's Child Guidance Clinic at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and later in Minnesota after she moved back to her home state. [7]
Writing as Kathryn Doty, she published short stories in Pocket, The Friend and various children's magazines. [7]
Adams died on October 14, 2016, aged 96, in an assisted living facility in Mankato, Minnesota. [9] [10]