Judy Lewis passed away at the age of 76 on Friday, November 25 at Waverly Heights, a retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
- Dec 1, 2011
AceShowbiz - Judy Lewis, who was the secret daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, has passed away. Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the 76-year-old, who wrote a best-selling book about her life as the Hollywood legends' love child, died of cancer on Friday, November 25 at Waverly Heights, a retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
In her 1994 memoir "Uncommon Knowledge", Lewis revealed that she was conceived in 1935 during Young and Gable's brief affair while they were filming "The Call of the Wild". Gable was at the time married to his second wife, Maria Langham. Young hid the pregnancy and 19 months after giving birth, she announced that she had adopted Lewis.
In a 1994 interview published in The Inquirer, Lewis recalled her childhood as saying, "It was very difficult for me as a little girl not to be accepted ... by my mother, who to this day will not publicly acknowledge that I am her biological child." An authorized biography published after Young's death in 2000 later confirmed that Lewis was indeed her daughter with Gable.
In a 2001 interview on CNN, Lewis recalled asking her mother about being adopted. She told Larry King, " 'Who's my mother? Who's my father?' And she would answer it very easily by saying, 'I couldn't love you any more than if you were my own child,' which, of course, didn't answer the question, but it said, 'Don't ask the question.' "
Asked if she had ever thought about how her life would be like if her parents had married and brought her up, she responded, "I would have liked them to have." She, however, was quick to note, "But that is just my dream, you know. Life is very strange. Doesn't give us what we want."
Lewis is survived by her daughter, grandsons, three half-brothers and a longtime partner, Steve Rowland. A Memorial Mass will be held at 11:30 A.M. on Saturday, December 3, at St. John Vianney Church, Youngsford Road and Route 23, Gladwyne.
