Clara Blandick’s Death – Cause and Date

The movie actress Clara Blandick died at the age of 81. Here is all you want to know, and more!

Biography - A Short Wiki

20th century film actress who became imortalized as Auntie Em in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.

She was married to mining engineer Harry Staunton Elliott from December 1905 to 1912.

How did Clara Blandick die?

Blandick’s health began to worsen throughout the 1950s. She had severe arthritis, and her eyesight began to fail.

On April 15, 1962, Blandick decided to take the matter into her own hands. After returning home from Palm Sunday services at her church, she prepared herself for the afterlife.

She dressed up in an elegant royal blue dressing gown and styled her hair. She placed her favorite photos and memorabilia around her, including press clippings from her lengthy career.

Blandick committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills and tying a plastic bag over her head.

On Sunday morning, Blandick’s landlady, Helen Mason, found the body. Blandick’s body was comfortably positioned on a couch, covered with a gold blanket over her shoulders. She left a suicide note which read:

“I am now about to make the great adventure. I cannot endure this agonizing pain any longer. It is all over my body. Neither can I face the impending blindness. I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”

Clara Blandick

She was survived by Catherine Hopkins, a niece from Camarillo, California.

Where is Clara Blandick buried?

Her ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, along with those of her sister, Marcia D. Young, and her sisters’ husband, George A. Young.

Only a few yards from Blandick’s ashes lay those of Charley Grapewin, who played her on-screen husband in The Wizard of Oz.