Shirley Temple Black, the former child star with curls, dimples and diplomat whose films cheered Depression-weary moviegoers, died Monday at age 85.
Black passed away at her home in Woodside, California from natural causes. She was surrounded by family and caregivers when she died.
The family statement said, "We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for 55 years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black."
From 1935 through 1938, Shirley Temple was the top box-office draw in the nation. She was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox studios from bankruptcy and made more than 40 movies before she turned 12.
Shirley married her first husband John Agar, an Army sergeant, at 17. The wedding ceremony took place at Wilshire Methodist Church. But their marriage only last for five years. They had a daughter Linda Susan Agar.
In 1950, Temple met her second husband Charles Alden Black. Charles Black is a Stanford graduate and son of the president of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. They had a son, Charles Jr., and a daughter, Lori. Their marriage lasted until his death in 2005 at age 86.
In 1949, Temple helped raise funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society; her brother had the illness. Her involvement in the national campaign helped interest her in political work. In 1955, Charles Black became head of business administration at the Stanford Research Institute, the Blacks moved to San Francisco and she became interested in world affairs.
During her diplomatic career, she was delegate to the United Nations, White House chief of protocol, ambassador to Ghana and ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
Mrs. Black was born in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 23, 1928. Her father George Francis Temple was a banker and her mother was Gertrude Amelia Krieger. The couple had three children- Jack, George Jr., and Shirley Jane Temple. Gertrude loved dancing and sent Shirley to dancing class when she was 3 years old. It was there that she met two producers from Educational Films Corporation and began her life as a child star.
