| Home / College Guide / Anne Whitfield of ‘White Christmas’ fame dies |
| Posted on Saturday, March 02 @ 00:00:04 PST |
(Gray News) - Anne Whitfield, a star known best for her role in the 1954 holiday film “White Christmas,” has died at age 85.
She died Feb. 15 in Yakima, Washington, surrounded by family after “an unexpected accident while on a walk in her neighborhood,” her obituary stated.
Whitfield was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1938. Her father was the orchestra and marching band director at the University of Mississippi, and her mother was a speech and drama professor.
She got her start in Hollywood at the tender age of 4, with her mother as her coach, working at first on radio programs.
Whitfield was cast as Susan Waverly alongside Bing Crosby in “White Christmas” when she was just 15. Her other acting credits include films “Juvenile Jungle,” “Tick, Tick, Tick,” as well as appearances in TV episodes of “Days of Our Lives,” “Perry Mason,” “The Magical World of Disney,” “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Bonanza,” EW reported.
She ended up leaving Hollywood for the Pacific Northwest, and after obtaining her bachelor’s degree at Evergreen State College, she worked as a clean water steward at the Department of Ecology for the State of Washington.
After retirement, she remained politically active in her retirement on causes relating to social justice and the environment.
Whitfield is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.
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