Jody Lawrance

Birth Name: Nona Josephine Goddard

Date of Birth: October 19, 1930

Place of Birth: Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, U.S.

Date of Death: July 10, 1986

Place of Death: Ojai, California, U.S.

Ethnicity: English, some German and Irish

Jody Lawrance was an American actress. She was a Hollywood star in the 1950s and early 1960s. She played Pocahontas in Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.

She was the youngest of three children of Eleanor Barbara and Ervin Silliman “Doc” Goddard. Her parents divorced when she was very young. Her father subsequently married a film editor Clara Grace McKee-Evans (née Atchinson) in 1935, her third husband. During her youth, Jody lived with future film star Marilyn Monroe, as her stepmother Grace was a friend and co-worker Marilyn’s mother Gladys Baker, and became a legal guardian of her daughter. Marilyn was enumerated in the 1940 U.S. Census in the household of Ervin and Grace Goddard.

Jody was married to Robert Wolf Herre, until her death. She had one child with her former husband, airplane parts company executive Bruce Michael Tilton; and two children with Richard.

Jody’s first cousin, Nona Blossom Goddard, daughter of her paternal uncle Walter Crosswaite Goddard, was the widow of Richard Walker Bolling, a Democratic Party politician, who was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri, from 1949 to 1983.

Jody’s paternal grandfather was Charles Walter Goddard (the son of Greenlee Goddard and Eliza Alberty). Charles was born in Arkansas.

Jody’s paternal grandmother was Mary Ernest Boyd (the daughter of James Thomas Boyd and Mary Augusta Silliman). Jody’s grandmother Mary was born in Sumter County, Alabama. Her parents were step-siblings. James was the son of Matthew Harper Boyd and Eliza Amanda Key. Jody’s great-grandmother Mary was the daughter of Tom/Thomas N. Silliman and Susan Maria Farrar/Farrah. After the death of James’ mother, his father married Mary’s widowed mother. Through Matthew, Jody’s great-great-great-great-grandparents were Jeremiah Dial and Margaret Lavender Montgomery, who were born in Ireland. Jeremiah and Margaret were common ancestors with B-movie actress Carol Forman, making them fifth cousins.

Jody’s maternal grandfather was John Frederick Roeck (the son of John Frederick Roeck and Kate Summers Waters). Jody’s grandfather John was born in Texas, to a father from Lübeck, Germany, and a mother from Alabama.

Jody’s maternal grandmother was Nettie Lawrence/Lawrance Wilson (the daughter of Leonidas Ferninand Wilson and Sarah Orpha Frances Bowman). Nettie and her parents were born in Texas.

Sources: Biographies of Jody Lawrance – http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com
https://www.cursumperficio.net

Genealogies of Jody Lawrance (focusing on her father’s side) – https://www.familysearch.org
https://www.findagrave.com