She was born Vivian Roberta Jones, with a brother and four sisters. After the family moved from Cherryvale to Independence, Kansas, she studied drama under Anna Ingleman and William Inge. Their next move, to Albequerque NM brought her to the Albuquerque Little Theatre, which provided her the money she needed to study under Eva Le Gallienne in New York. After arriving in 1932 she had trouble finding work until she began a two-year stint in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Music in the Air. ...[Read Story]