Carolyn Mitchell Profile

Carolyn Mitchell

	(Barbara Ann Thomason)
25 January 37	is born in Phoenix, Arizona, to Don and Helen Thomason. Her mother's maiden name is Gladden.
?	attends Emerson Elementary School and is known as the prettiest girl in Phoenix
?	attends North Phoenix High School as a freshman
?	resides at 802 East Windsor in Phoenix and will do so until 1951
51	her family moves to Inglewood, California
?	is a senior at Morningside High School in Inglewood; she lives at 9701 South 11th Avenue, Inglewood
	is engaged a few times, but never goes through with them
52	places second in the "Miss Pacific Coast" contest
53	places third in the "Miss Surf Festival" contest
	places third in the "Miss Muscle Beach" contest
	places second in the "Miss Bay Beach" contest
October 53	wins the "Miss Venus" contest. Her trainer is George "Butcherman" Bruce of Van Nuys, California.
54	attends Hollywood Professional School. She uses weights to tone her figure for the many beauty contests.
	is crowned "Queen of the Weight Lifting Championships of Southern California"
April 54	attends the "Junior Miss California" contest held at the Van Nuys Playground in Los Angeles. She places second to Jennie Reina, "Miss Sun Valley," because she is 8 lbs. overweight.
20 June 54	out of 32 contestants, she is crowned "Miss Muscle Beach" after losing 8 lbs. through a special diet of one meal every 48 hours
September 54	is crowned "Miss Muscle Beach" and "Miss Surf Festival"
Mid-50s	works as an instructress for Arthur Murray on the West Coast
55	is crowned "Miss Huntington Beach"
?	is crowned "Miss Van Ness," "Miss Bay Beach," "Miss Southwest Los Angeles," "Miss Pacific Coast," and "Queen of Southern California"
May 55	is runner-up in the contest for the "Goose Girl" of Hollywood Park's 1955 season to 19-year-old Jackie Kevlin
October 57	is seen at Jacks at the Beach with Dick Kalman
December 57	billed as "Tara Thomas," she models for Modern Man
Early 58	a mutual friend, auto salesman Bill Gardner, introduces her to actor Mickey Rooney at a nightclub
?	Rooney buys her a $4,500 fur coat
12 April 58	takes an overdose of sleeping pills and charges Rooney the day after with attempting to resuscitate her by pushing her into his swimming pool. Her girlfriend, Pat Landers, fishes her out and calls for an ambulance. The story will be unveiled later as a publicity stunt.
May 58	is the reigning "Los Angeles Swim Pool Queen"
June 58	Nicky Hilton takes her to Molly Bee's opening at the Club Largo, but they have a quarrel and Nicky stalks out. She stays on with Rafael Campos and Tray Livingston, but they all came in Nicky's car so they have no way to get home until Tommy Sands and Pat Mitchell come to the rescue.
	after his official separation from actress Elaine Mahnken, later a.k.a. Elaine Devry, she shares Rooney's new house at 12979 Blairwood Road in Sherman Oaks
7 August 58	swallows an overdose of sleeping pills while alone in Rooney's rented home. Rooney is performing in a nightclub act at Lake Tahoe and cannot be reached for direct comment. "They're just good friends," says producer Red Doff, Rooney's manager. "He has no thought of marriage." "I had been ill for a number of weeks with acute bronchitis," she tells reporters. "The doctor prescribed some sleeping pills. I reached in my purse and took some. I don't know how many."
End August 58	is out of the hospital and home with mother for a two-month rest
September 58	is Rooney's new date. The press calls her "the girl involved in the sleeping pill incident."
October 58	she and Rooney are expected to fly back on the same plane from New York, where he was to finish his role in The Last Mile
1 December 58	marries Mickey Rooney secretly in Mexico
December 58	columnist Dorothy Kilgallen´reports that it looks like a long wait for Rooney and "Carolyn, his unofficial fiancée. The estranged Mrs. Rooney, Elaine Mahnken, has yet to sign the property settlement, and she's expected to file for divorce on the West Coast. If she does decide on a Californian parting, Mickey won't be able to make it to the altar again for a whole year."
March 59	officially, she threatens suicide if Rooney won't get his divorce and marry her since she is three months pregnant
July 59	Kilgallen reports Rooney is gravely worried about Carolyn's health
September 59	Mickey Rooney promptly announces he already wed her in a Mexican ceremony
	Rooney states he has been married to her since December, 1958
13 September 59	her daughter Kelly Ann is born at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica
November 59	is featured in Gala
1 December 59	she and Rooney celebrate the first anniversary of their marriage, and then he reports to "The Jack Paar Show." A spat with Paar results. Eventually Rooney acknowledges he had a few drinks before going to the studio. "I am sorry; I was drunk." He and Paar reconcile.
60	Reverend Douglas Smith marries her and Rooney in his Los Angeles church, making their marriage legal in California, at last
30 December 60	her daughter Kerry Yule is born in Los Angeles
30 March 62	her son, Michael Joseph, "Kyle," is born in Los Angeles by cesarean section
April 62	finds a new house on Magnolia Boulevard in Encino
August 63	accompanies her husband to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, for the filming of The Secret Invasion
Early September 63	is back in the States for the birth of her fourth child
13 September 63	her daughter Kimmy Sue is born in Los Angeles by cesarean section
64	they trade their Encino home for a house at 1100 Tower Road, Beverly Hills
August 64	accompanies Rooney to the set for the filming of his television series, "Mickey"
28 August 64	Rooney's latest girlfriend, a permanent extra, ex-stripper, and kind of Sophia Loren-type causes some turmoil on the set of "Mickey." He met her on the 4th of July in Atlantic City.
September 64	has it out with Mickey. Both call their lawyers.
?	gives Mickey some trouble at home
?	the Rooneys sell their Tower Road residence and move into a new house in Brentwood, California. Its previous two occupants died at the house in freak accidents, so the house goes for only $65,000.
?	she and Mickey become friendly with French actor Alain Delon, who introduces them to a 24-year-old Yugoslavian named Milos Milosevics, who worked in Paris as a stand-in for Delon
Fall 64	when Rooney says farewell to his family for filming of Ambush Bay in the Philippines, he asks Milosevics to take good care of his wife. He does.
	accompanies Milosevics to Fort Bragg, California, where he is on location for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, in which he landed a bit part
	spends most of her nights with Milosevics
November 64	is in the midst of a torrid love affair with Milosevics when husband Rooney returns from the Philippines
	when Mickey finds out about the affair, he moves out of the house and into the Bel Air Hotel
22 December 65	she and Mickey separate officially. Milosevics moves into the Rooneys' Brentwood house with, Barbara and her four kids.
Late January 66	Mickey learns that she is planning to file suit for seperate maintenance
29 January 66	Mickey files for divorce, charging mental cruelty, and asks the court for a restraining order to keep Milosevics out of his house. Rooney offers to pay her $400 a month alimony and an additional $600 a month for support of their four children - Kelly, 5; Kerry, 4; Kyle, 3; and Sue, 2.
	when she learns that she may lose her children in a custody battle, she considers returning to her husband, making Milosevics even more jealous
30 January 66	with the help of a private detective, she and Milosevics tape a talk she has with Rooney about the divorce suit. On the tape, she tells her husband that she will not see Milosevics again, even as a friend. Milosevics is furious when he hears this.
	she, Milosevics, and her girlfriend Margie Lane go out for dinner to the Daisy on Rodeo Drive. At 8:30 p.m. they return to Brentwood and say good night.
31 January 66	Wilma Catania, a girlfriend of hers, and the maid open the bedroom door with a screwdriver and find her and Milosevics on the bathroom floor. She is lying on her back, with a bullet hole in her jaw; he is lying face down, dead of a bullet wound to his temple, both shot by Mickey's chrome-plated .38 caliber revolver, a simple case of murder-suicide. Her children are at home with the exception of Kimmy Sue, who is visiting her grandparents in Inglewood. She was 29.
	police say the couple was shot in the head and that both were fully clothed. Milosevics' body is found crumpled over Carolyn. Police believe that he shot her because she intended to reconcile with her husband.
	when Rooney learns about it, he collapses in shock and stays another day in the hospital, where he is being treated for an exotic blood disease
5 February 66	her services and interment are held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale. The service is held by the same Reverend who had married her and Rooney in Los Angeles in 1960. Less than 100 mourners attend. Dr. Smith eulogizes her: "This beautiful girl was like a spray of roses, now only the fragrance remains."
?	Milosevics' body is shipped back to Belgrade, Yugoslavia
?	her four children are put into the custody of their grandparents in Inglewood. Her girlfriend Margie Lane will become Rooney's next wife.
March 73	her parents adopt her four children Kelly, 14; Kerry, 13; Kyle, 12, and Kimmie, 10. They will take the name of Thomason. The judge rules that the children's best interests are served by "the regularity, reliability and stability of living with the grandparents," Mr. and Mrs. Don Thomason of Rolling Hills Estates. Rooney lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his seventh wife.

Sources: The Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney by Artur Marx, Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, Made in Heaven by Victoria Houseman, Screenland, Gala, Modern Man, Bedford Gazette, The Vidette-Messenger, Tri-City Herald, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Coshocton Tribune, The Times Recorder, News Journal, Nevada State Journal, Herald-Times-Reporter, Jim Thomas, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books: The Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney by Artur Marx
Links: Filmography