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I came across Virginia while researching her husband, Ralph Byrd. He was very well known during the 1930s and 40s for his portrayal of the comic strip character Dick Tracy. Although neither Virginia nor Ralph were ever considered as “A” list actors, they both had decent careers overall with Virginia’s lasting well into the 1960s. Keep in mind that when I research actors and actresses I don’t get too deeply into their careers. Those are things that are pretty well documented already all over the web. We are here for their personal life.
During Ralph’s research I did his family tree and of course had to include Virginia’s side. What I discovered was that there was next to nothing known about her family. I never saw a single website that mentioned her parents. Also, I found only one family tree with her in it up on Ancestry and it had zero sources. By the time I was done I had enough information to warrant her own blog, and so here we are.
As always, when I write a blog I first give a brief synopsis of the person’s life based on the different websites out there, including any errors or theories. So apparently Virginia was born Virginia Evangeline Carroll on 2 December 1913 in Los Angeles, California. She was discovered there as a model at a department store. Her career basically began with the film Roberta, though it was an uncredited part. She mostly did “B” westerns and then moved into TV later. She was married to Ralph Byrd from 1936 until his death in 1952. They had one child, a daughter named Carroll Byrd Evangeline. She was later married to film projectionist Lloyd McLean from 1957 until his death in 1969 and then passed away herself from natural causes in 2009 in Santa Barbara, California. She also had a brother named Frank that was a Los Angeles radio newscaster.
Well, let’s get into her full story, but this time with the facts. Virginia was born as Virginia Elizabeth Carroll at noon on 2 December 1913 at 1499 Scott Avenue in Los Angeles, not too far from where Dodger Stadium is now. Her parents were Frank Carroll, a mechanical engineer, and Mary Gallagher.
During most of the research I was unable to determine where the use of the name Evangeline came from on the other sites but fortunately I was able to find her actual birth certificate. Elizabeth was her true middle name so where did Evangeline come from? No matter where it started, once it was used on Wikipedia it was used everywhere.
Notice though that Wikipedia shows her daughter’s name as Carroll Byrd Evangeline. Carroll used a few different names during her life and I assume that someone noticed that Evangeline name of hers and assumed it was from her mother’s middle initial. Other than the birth certificate, I never saw another document or news article that mentioned Virginia’s true middle name. In any case, Carroll’s real birth name was Carroll Diane Byrd.
When I was almost done writing Ralph’s blog I came across an interview of Virginia’s posted on a website called Western Clippings. It backs up three things in Virginia’s information. First is her middle name of Elizabeth. Secondly, in Ralph’s blog I had posted a news clipping about a play they did together and I proposed it might be where they met. Turns out it was. Here is what I posted in Ralph’s blog about it: “Most importantly for 1935 is a news story about a play he’s in at the Bliss-Hayden Theater, which is the Beverly Hills Playhouse now. The news article is in two parts: 1 2. This may very well be where Ralph met Virginia Carroll, his next wife”. That Western Clippings site is the only place online that I ever found listing her name correctly. The third confirmation is the rumor about Ralph actually dying from cancer at the Veterans Hospital. Now, let’s get back to her family.
Virginia’s father, Frank, was born 2 July 1879 in Hiawassee, Georgia to Samuel Carroll, a farmer, and Julia Brown. He had a brother, Frederick Eugene, and a sister, Mabel Mae. By the time of the 1880 US Census in June the family had moved to Huerfano, Colorado. When the 1900 US Census was done he was living in Placerville, Colorado and was a stock drover. He married his first wife, Mabel Hockins, in 1901 in Ophir, Colorado. Mabel was born in Cornwall County, England in 1883. They had a daughter, Frances W Carroll, in 1905 and then they got divorced in Colorado in December of 1907. She got married three more times and died in Colorado in 1967. We’ll cover their daughter Frances a little later.
There is another possible marriage for Frank, but if so, he was a bigamist. It was in June 1906 in Nogales, Arizona to a 28 year old Mexican national named Maria Angelina Barragan. One problem I have with this being Frank is that Nogales is right next to the Arizona/Mexico border and over 600 miles (965 km) away from where he got divorced in Colorado. However, I tracked down Frank’s witness at the wedding and he was a local Judge there in Nogales but had recently moved there from Lassen County, California. Lassen County was a big mining area at the time and it’s over 1000 miles (1600 km) away from Nogales. I did find a Frank Carroll living in Lassen County about the same time but can’t determine if it was our guy. For now I’ll say it’s not him but if it was then he had a son with her named Mitchell.
Regardless whether he married the Mexican lady, he got a marriage license and then married again on 4 November 1912. This was in Los Angeles and it was to Virginia’s mother, Mary Gallagher, and 11 months later Virginia was born.
Mary Ellen Gallagher was born 20 September 1882 in Ironton, Ohio to Frank Gallagher and Ellen Dunne. Mary’s life before marrying Frank Carroll was very difficult to track down. In desperation I went up on Ancestry to see if any family had a family tree there. The one family tree I found there had mistakenly combined a couple of families, removing the usefulness of it. Looking to verify family members through the newspapers, by looking for obits and such, I never got enough information to confirm I had the right people. Because of all this I’m not going to get into her family here, with the exception of the fact that she had two brothers, William Patrick and Jerome Francis, and a sister named Bertha Elizabeth.
Late in the research I was able to find her in the 1900 US Census. It was done in June and Mary was now listed as Mamie. She will bounce between Mary and Mamie during the research, as will her middle name from Ellen to Helen. You’ll find her on line 58 living at 2030 Auburn Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio. That home is gone now but it was right next to the one in the link I provided. This was the home of William Howard Taft, our 27th President, and the reason it’s the only house left in the area now. Anyway, scrolling right on her entry in the census show her birth info is correct, as are her and her parents’ birth states. Continuing right you’ll see that she was a servant. I never could find Mary in the 1910 US Census though so we’ll have to begin now after their 1912 marriage.
In 1911 Frank began working for Ingersoll Rand. He made many trips overseas for them from about 1917 until at least through the mid 1920s. When Frank filled out his WW1 draft card in September 1918 they were living at 137 N Dillon Street in Los Angeles. When they filled out the 1920 US Census they were living at 4405 Gramercy Place in Los Angeles, which is roughly half way between downtown LA and the LA International Airport. If you scroll down the census you’ll find them down near the bottom. As you move right on Frank it shows they were renting and that he was a mechanical engineer. Next is Mary, or in this case Mayme. Last up is Virginia. For both of them the info is generally correct.
They continued to live in Los Angeles through the 1920s and on 10 February 1924 Virginia received a little brother. His name was Frank F Carroll. He would later become a radio newscaster there in Los Angeles.
For 1927 I found where 13 year old Virginia twice made one-week trips to Hawaii and back (in July and August) and as far as I can tell she was by herself. I have to assume she was either going to meet someone there or she was going with some other people we don’t know about because they listed the passengers alphabetically instead of together. Personally I bet her father was already in Hawaii since that was one of the places his company would send him.
For various years during the 1920s the family was hard to locate but sometime in the late 1920s Frank’s job necessitated the moving of them to Bronxville, New York, where they are found in the 1930 US Census. Bronxville is about 15 miles (24 km) north of Manhattan.
Looking at the census, scroll down to line 15 to see them. First thing you’ll see is that they were living at 21 Sycamore Road. As you go across Frank’s row you’ll find where he said that he rents the home for $250 a month. That works out to $3800 today. I checked on a neighbor who owned his for $30,000 and that is about $457,000 today. Based on the town and neighborhood it’s probably correct. Continuing on to the right in the census shows that Frank was still a mechanical engineer. After him is Mary, though she is listed as Mayme. Next comes the two children, 16 year old Virginia and six year old Frank.
By the following year they reappear in the Los Angeles 1931 city directory and Mary’s 1932 Voter List living at 4031 Leeward Avenue. Notice though that she is listed alone. Found this little item from the 19 July 1932 newspaper that explains it:
So apparently things were a tad on the bad side between Mary and Frank. If you don’t remember, Bertha Gallagher is her sister. Not sure what she had to do with it though unless she was being harassed. Frank finally filed for divorce about 1 August 1933:
Not to be outdone, Mary counter-filed the following month and she was given the divorce at the beginning of December 1933:
This takes us a few weeks later to 29 December 1933. This is the day that Frank dies. I was never able to find out how he died though:
Now here’s the weird part. I never noticed while I was doing the research until I was halfway done writing this blog but Ralph’s father died just nine days before Virginia’s.
On 15 June 1934 Virginia left on a trip to New York City. She returned to Los Angeles on 3 September. The passenger list shows her address there as 336 N Larchmont Boulevard. Today it’s a pet store.
Late 1935 is when Virginia met Ralph.
During the 1930s her career began and slowly built up. She did maybe a dozen films with at least half of them being uncredited roles. Two major things happened to her during this time-frame. The first is that she and Ralph took out a marriage license on 8 February 1937 and then got married in Pasadena on 20 February 1937. I mentioned in Ralph’s blog that if you look at the marriage license you’ll see that the witnesses are Ralph’s baby brother, Albert, and Virginia’s half-sister, Frances. The second thing that happened during the 1930s to her was the birth of their daughter, Carroll Diane, on 23 September 1937.
Carroll Diane Byrd at 28 years old
1938 was when Virginia got a small part in Ralph’s movie Dick Tracy Returns. Unfortunately it was uncredited. For the next year or so they lead the family-life kind of existence, even buying a nice house on a couple of acres. This was at 17251 Sherman Way in Van Nuys, California. The photo in the link I just gave you is how the address looks now. Not long before Ralph died he sold the property to a church. More on that here and here.
They filled out their 1940 US Census in May. You’ll find them at line 36. It says they own their house and that it’s worth $7000. That’s $130,000 today. He and Virginia show that they work for film studios, with Ralph having worked for 40 weeks in 1939 and Virginia for 8. Lastly, Ralph says he earned $5000 ($92,000 today) and Virginia made $600 ($11,000 today). Next up is their daughter, Carroll and then the family maid, Dessie. Following up a bit on Dessie showed that she stayed with them at least until 1952, the year that Ralph died. Here’s a couple of minor news items about them from 1940: Feb 40 Jul 40-1 Jul 40-2.
From 1941 until the end of WW2 Virginia had about a dozen films or serials come out, almost half of which were uncredited. From the end of the war until 1950 she did a decent amount of work but the vast majority of it was uncredited.
From Ralph’s blog: In April 1950 they applied for zoning for a day nursery for young children. This was on their property on Sherman Way. By September they were up and running with Virginia at the helm and a lady named Bozena Rose helping. If I have the right lady, Bozena was a Kansas girl about 10 years younger than Virginia and who just passed away in 2014. In the process of trying to locate older photos of the place before it was sold I stumbled upon a site for the Museum of the San Fernando Valley. Follow that link and you’ll see a collection of photos donated in 2013 that had the year 1950 written on them. The site doesn’t have any other info on the pictures other than the address of 17251 Sherman Way. I was thrilled to see that it was the house and there were also photos of Ralph and Virginia. There was another that was probably their daughter Carroll but I couldn’t determine that 100%. There are six pictures of the property, two of Virginia and two of Ralph.
After they sold the property on Sherman Way they moved to 4961 Casa Drive in Tarzana. The link is a satellite photo as there is no street view available. Tried to find some from a realtor’s site to link to but no luck there.
1951 was Virginia’s first foray into television. She would still do the occasional movie but they were almost exclusively uncredited. After Ralph died in August 1952 she picked up the pace a bit and started doing more and more TV. After 1957 she slowed down and did the occasional TV show. This may be because she got married again on 15 June 1957 to Lloyd McLean, a film projectionist.
Since we are up to the 1950s let’s catch you up on Frances W Carroll, Virginia’s half-sister. In case you don’t remember, Frances was born in Colorado in 1905 during Frank’s marriage to his first wife (Mabel) and lived in Denver. In 1922 she went to Los Angeles and married a 22 year old California boy who worked in finance. His name was John Lewis Thompson. The thing to take away from the marriage certificate is that she named Mary Gallagher as her mother instead of Mabel Hockins. Not sure what to make of that.
It must not have been an enjoyable marriage because by 1929 she got married again, this time to a 27 year old salesman named Emerson William Peet. She had two children with Emerson Peet, Robert (who died in 1996) and Patricia (who died in 2011). She divorced Emerson sometime between 1942 and 1944 and remained single until marrying singer/songwriter Harry Barris in Las Vegas on 12 April 1954. She died less than one year later on 5 April 1955. According to her death certificate she committed suicide with a drug overdose. Sadly, her 26 year old grandson also died by suicide with a drug overdose in 1983. To make it sadder, and even more like his grandmother, he had been married less than one year.
It’s time to cover Virginia’s mother and baby brother. Mary and young Frank moved to the Medford, Oregon area in late 1937/early 1938. I found in the newspaper where Mary bought some property there in April 1938. I’m not sure though why the move happened. I think they stayed there through the war years and by 1947 Mary was back living in Los Angeles at 213 Dianthus Street in Redondo Beach, California. I assume Frank was with her because I didn’t find him in Los Angeles until 1948 living by himself at 6907 Willoughby Avenue. Mary continued to lived there until she passed away on 5 August 1957.
As for Frank, he turned out to be a tough nut to crack. I didn’t discover Frank’s middle initial of “F” until I saw his WWII draft card. This was good because there were several Frank Carrolls in the Los Angeles area. There was only two or three Frank F Carrolls though. This initial added a possible wife and family but I was unable to confirm it was the right guy. This Frank F Carroll had married a Margaret about 1956 and they later managed a well known restaurant in the 1970s in Studio City called Du-Par’s. It closed it’s doors 2017.
I was having a heck of a time trying to confirm that this Frank was our Frank. I came across an obituary for their son, Steven. He had died at age 27 in 1985. This lead me to his two sisters, Lori and Lisa. Pursuing the children gave me the mother’s maiden name of Anderson and eventually to her family, but still found no confirmation on Frank. Following out her family though did lead me to an interesting story. Margaret had 10 siblings, one of which was named Bruce. In October 1950, when he was 30, he married Dona May Mitchell in Seattle, Washington. Dona was 18 years old and a recent high school graduate. They moved to Alaska and on 23 August 1952 Dona wrote a note to Bruce and then shot herself. After arranging to have her body sent to Seattle for burial he spent four days driving all the way back to Seattle. After getting there he took a hose and hooked it to his exhaust and killed himself. They are both buried in Seattle. Here’s the news story: Suicides
Since working on Margaret and her family didn’t help with confirming Frank, I needed another direction to go. That’s when I remembered Frank’s Aunt Bertha. After following her out I came across a cemetery record for ordering her memorial. Notice on it that it will be a memorial for both Bertha and Mary. Also notice the cost of $140.66 for the memorial. That’s $1100 today! Lastly, notice that Frank is ordering it. When I saw that I was elated because I had seen that address for the Frank F Carroll that was married to Margaret. Now I could finish out his life.
It appears that around July 1954 Frank started working for KHJ radio in Los Angeles and his work was respected. About February 1962 he moved to TV on KHJ’s Channel 9 News, where he stayed until about 1969. Channel 9 is where he met Margaret back during his radio days. She was a make-up artist there.
I didn’t see anything else on him until July 1972 when he and Margaret now owned and operated a nice restaurant called Sir George’s. Here’s another good review from February 1973. By 1977 the family was living in North Hollywood with Frank and Margaret now managing that Du Par’s restaurant that I mentioned earlier. After this the next thing I could find was their divorce on 20 January 1984. I don’t know why they divorced but I do know that less than three months later, on 2 April 1984, Frank got off of a highway and pulled over to the side of the off-ramp. He then walked out about 50 yards from the freeway and shot himself. His body was found a day or two later. Here’s the story: Suicide. Margaret went on to pass away at age 87 in 2009 and is buried in her birthplace of Henderson County, North Carolina.
Before we get back to Virginia let’s cover her daughter, Carroll. Before Carroll even graduated high school she had started doing stunt work. This was at the ripe old age of 14. The stunt work continued on into at least the early 1970s. She supposedly tried some acting but I can’t find anything as far as acting credits, though the story goes she was on The Fugitive TV show. Here is a good picture of her while doing stunts on Wagon Train.
5 foot 7 inch Carroll Byrd at work
Came across a story from 1965 about her doing stunt shows for Universal Studios. On 24 November 1965 28 year old Carroll married 42 year old David Bard Greene. He worked for David Janssen Enterprises and in fact David Janssen was his best man. In 1968 they were living in Burbank and filed for a business certificate for for what they called Waist-a-Way and Pixie Pet Portals. About 1969 Carroll began 3 years of classes at a place called West Valley Church of Religious Science and finished in June 1972.
In June 1973 she and David divorced. As far as I could tell they had no children. David died in Santa Barbara in 2016. Next thing I found was this newspaper clipping from Palm Springs in June 1974. Carroll is now Reverend Carroll D Greene with the same church that she took the classes at. During that talk in Palm Springs she met a man named Ray O Holloway and married him in October in Los Angeles. This marriage lasted until September 1979.
During the 70s and 80s I found several news clippings about her giving talks about the “Meta-Wisdom Wholistic” system. Click Here for a definition of wholistic. Here are the links to some clippings of her appearances: Feb 77 Jan 81 Sep 81 Oct 86 Apr 87. I’m not going to cover any more of her life since she is still living.
Now we can finally get back to Virginia. During the 1950s she did several episodes on The Roy Rogers Show and several other shows during the late 1950s, with Dragnet giving her four episodes. She only did four or five things on TV in the 1960s, with the last one being in 1965. In February 1969 her husband Lloyd passed away in Los Angeles. After this she drops from sight until she died on 23 July 2009. Both she and Lloyd are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
In the end Virginia was a challenging subject to research, much more so than Ralph. That’s part of the fun though. She had a long life (95!) and did get to experience Hollywood in it’s heyday, though there were some tragedies along the way. I think what stood out for me the most was the amount of suicides, and these were more or less the ones from the immediate family tree. I’d only seen this type of thing once before and that was in my daughter -in-law’s paternal side. So how much of this is genetic? Depression has been shown to run in families, though the full understanding of its genetic connection is still being studied. Regardless, the line to keep an eye on would be the Carroll side of the family. One reason I say that is that Virginia’s half-sister Frances only shared a father with Virginia. If any family members read this, are you aware of any unusual amounts of it in your family. I would be curious to know.
Thanks for stopping by! -Ray
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Virginia Carroll 
