Jennifer Cancels Trip Abroad, Flies to 2 Boys(Associated Press, Aug. 29, 1951)
For screen actress Jennifer Jones today the ties of motherhood eclipsed her new role as Mrs. David O. Selznick and a projected European jaunt with the film producer.
Instead of flying to Paris with Selznick at 6 p.m., as planned, Miss Jones lost little time early today in her Sherry-Netherland Hotel suite in deciding to fly back to Hollywood after being notified of the death of Robert Walker, her former spouse and father of her two young sons.
"Miss Jones decided she owed her first time and allegiance to her children in this crisis," a spokesman for Miss Jones and her confidential secretary, told a reporter at the Sherry-Netherland.
Selznick left with her for the West Coast on Flight 15, American Airlines, which left La Guardia Field at 9 a.m.
Cancel Reservations
They cancelled their reservations on a Trans-World Airlines plane due to take off for Paris tonight with movie actress Irene Dunne; her husband, Dr. Frederick D. Griffin, and several other Hollywood notables bound for the Venice Film Festival.
Reached at the Waldorf-Astoria, Dunne said: "I was terribly sorry to hear of Mr. Walker's death. My husband and I didn't come east with the Selznicks and I didn't know they were booked on the same trans-Atlantic plane. We will miss them."
The Selznicks came here three days ago, preparatory to their intended flight abroad. It was the latest visit of the brunette movie beauty to the city where, some years ago, she was slaving over a hot stove in a cold water flat waiting with her husband, Walker, for her first break.
Later, after a prodigious success in the "Song of Bernadette" and other movies, she divorced Walker. She married Selznick in Genoa, Italy, on July 13, 1949.
