Visiting Myrna Loy sites in Helena MT

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The final resting place of one of Hollywood’s movie queens can be found in a quiet cemetery on the outskirts of helena, Montana. How did Myrna Loy come to rest in the Montana state capitol city after a glorious Hollywood career and decades of residing in New York City? Because Loy is a Montana native and buried next to her parents. Is Loy the most famous movie star to hail form Montana? Only second place behind the legendary Gary Cooper. In fact, only four years separate Loy and Cooper, they lived on the same street for awhile and attended the same school. She was born Myrna Williams August 2, 1905 to David Franklin and Della Williams on a small cattle ranch near Radersberg some 40 miles from Helena. When her father was elected to Montana’s state legislature, the family moved to 507 Fifth Avenue when Myrna was seven. Located in the historic downtown district near the capitol building, the turn of the century house stands among a neighborhood of quaint vintage structures. Cooper lived down the street at 712 Fifth Avenue. A few blocks away is Central Elementary School which is still functioning. For a moment, one imagines two future great Hollywood stars as children walking to this school when Helena was still more wild west than modern. In the same neighborhood, Cooper was born at 730 Eleventh Avenue which is another wonderful looking old house. There is no plaque or acknowledgment that Montana’s most famous native son was born there and one ponders if the current occupant is aware of it. Myrna and her mother went to La Jolla, California to recover from pneumonia and David followed but he preferred Montana so back they came. The acting bug had struck however and 12-year-old Myrna made her stage debut at Helena’s since demolished Marlow Theater. In 1918, David perished in a Spanish flu epidemic and the family made a permanent move to Culver City, California, home to Myrna’s future employers MGM Studios. The rest is history. Loy rose from silent pictures and small parts to fame as Nora Charles opposite William Powell’s Nick Charles in “The Thin Man” series as well as “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Father of the Bride.” She purchased the old family homestead for her mother who died in 1966. Myrna Loy died December 14, 1993 at 88 and her remains were interred to Forestvale Cemetery. Loy and her parents can be found in the Valley View section. A small simple headstone marks the spot thus completing the circular journey of her life. This information was provided by a flyer I got at the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts and Media situated across from the old courthouse downtown. It was easy to find these places. The center was established in 1991 in the century old former Lewis and Clark Jail.