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==Rock Hudson== Rock Hudson was an American actor, born as Roy Harold Scherer, Jr on [[Nov 17]], 1925 in Winnetka, Cook County, [[Illinois]], the son of [[#Roy Harold Scherer|Roy Harold Scherer, Sr]] an auto mechanic, and his wife [[#Katherine Wood|Katherine "Kay" Wood]] (d. 1977), who had just married the year before. Rock's eight-grandparent ethnic-mix is German/Swiss/Swiss/Swiss/English/English/Irish/Irish. Roy Sr left the family in 1932 and went to California. After Roy left, Kay started dating Wally FitzGerald who worked shoveling coal at the Winnetka Water Works. Oppenheimer's book calls Wally a "tall, handsome, ex-Marine". Kay and Wally married and he adopted Roy who then became called Roy FitzGerald. Oppenheirmer states that Roy hated Wally from the age of nine, and tried to stay away from home as much as possible. (pg 6) Wally and Kay fought and he would beat her and Roy. They divorced, Kay married him a second time, and they divorced again when Roy was fifteen. Roy FitzGerald went to New Trier High School in Cook County, Illinois, graduating in 1944. Kay became a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family, and also a telephone operator. For several years they lived above Walgreen's Drug Store. Roy Sr had kept in touch with his first family, and when Roy was 16 he went to California to visit his father. In 1943 Rock enlisted in the U.S. Navy from which he was discharged in 1946. He returned to Winnetka for a time, living with his mother, but in order to persue his dream of becoming an actor he decided to relocate to California. For a short time he lived with his father who was then living with a wife and daughter in Long Beach, [[Los Angeles County, California]]. Sara Davidson states that his first check for acting, which he'd kept for sentimental reasons, is made out for ten dollars, dated Mar 19, 1948, and endorsed to [his first live-in lover] [[Kenneth G Hodge]]. ===Primary documents for 1=== *[http://www.winnetkahistory.org/gazette/people/rock_hudson.htm "Rock Hudson: In Winnetka We Called Him Roy"], By Maura Rogan hosted at Winnetka History stating : "A 1929 phone directory lists the Scherer's home at 1017 Elm." *[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=0&tips=0&gsfn=&gsln=scherer&sx=y&f12=Illinois&f4=cook&f7=&f15=&rg_81004011__date=1926&rs_81004011__date=0&f18=&f14__n=&_8000C002=&_80008002=&_80018002=&f10=&f16=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1930usfedcen&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&fh=24&recid=22884914&recoff=3+19+20 1930 New Trier, Cook County, Illinois] showing : "Raymond Scherer, 30, IL, married at age 24, Proprietor, Garage; Katherine, 30 IL/England/IL; Raymond H 4 1/12; Lloyd 23 brother, IL, Helper, Gas Station" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=50000&iid=114660641&fn=&ln=Record+Rock+Hudson+from+1985-1985&st=d&ssrc=&pid=1041844 New York Times, obituary "Rock Hudson"] [[Oct 3]], 1985 "Rock Hudson, Screen Idol, Dies at 59" stating such bits as : "...During the Depression, his father lost his job as an automobile mechanic and left the family. His mother, a telephone operator, remarried, and the actor, then 8 years old, took the surname of his stepfather Wallace Fitzgerald. His mother's second marriage ended after nine years." "In 1944, he joined the Navy and served in the Philippines as an airplane mechanic." None of his male lovers were named, his one-time wife Phyllis Gates was. ===Seconday sources=== * ''Rock Hudson, His Story'', by Rock Hudson and Sara Davidson; William Morrow and Company, New York. 1986 Click this ISBN 0688064728 to see it at Amazon * ''Idol Rock Hudson : The True Story of an American Folk Hero'', by Jerry Oppenheimer and Jack Vitek. Villard Books, 1986. ISBN 0394554892 Click this ISBN 0688064728 to see it at Amazon
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