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Jean Engstrom


Jean Engstrom (July 25, 1920 Detroit, Michigan - March 20, 1997 Hemet, California) was an American actress active in regional theater, movies, and television in the 1950s and 1960s.

Jean Engstrom was born Flora Jean Bovie, in Michigan on July 25, 1920, the eldest of two children born to Clarence Augustus Bovie (1892-1928), an artist and commercial illustrator, and Nona Iola Cochrun (1895-1976) After her father's death due to a cerebral hemorrhage in 1928, 1930 census records show that she and her mother and younger brother were living with her father's mother (paternal grandmother) in Augusta, Michigan. In 1935, they were living in Battle Creek, Michigan. When Flora Jean was 16 the family moved to Southern California and lived for a while with her mother's mother (maternal grandmother), and it is there that she completed high school. On February 14, 1940, Flora Jean Bovie married Richard Harold Moon (1916-1989) in Baldwin Park, California. On June 30, 1942, their only child, daughter Liana Jeanne Moon (later to be actress Jena Engstrom) was born. Flora Jean and Richard Moon would divorce and in about 1947 she married her second husband, Elliott E. Engstrom (1920- ), who would later adopt her daughter. They would remain married until her death. In the mid-1980s she developed breast cancer, had a mastectomy performed in July 1985, and would die of breast cancer on March 20, 1997, in a convalescent hospital in Hemet, California. She is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.

Flora Jean Bovie originally wanted to become a singer, but a crushed breast plate suffered in an automobile accident affected her vocal chords and she turned to modeling. A 1958 TV Guide article states that she began acting in 1940 while a 1962 syndicated news articles states that she began acting in 1951. Whenever her acting career started, she began acting with little theater groups in and around the Hollywood area. She later moved to work in movies and in television and during this time studied with Francis Lederer's improvisation group. She used the name Jean Engstrom professionally and during her career she appeared in over 50 plays, in at least 8 movies, and in about 40 television programs before leaving acting.


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