(12 October 1951 - 2 January 1992) (her death)
December 50 friends of her and Willard Parker won`t be surprised if a Mexican divorce paves the way for their early marriage
is reported lunching at Romanoff`s with her fiancé, Willard Parker. Not many tables away, Paul Douglas is lunching with his present wife, Jan Sterling.
January 51 on a Hollywood movie set, she and Parker announce their wedding date to be October 10, the day after his divorce from Marion Pierce becomes final.
February 51 a baby photo of hers is used to advertise Weatena cereals
24 April 51 refuses to take off her diamond ring for a movie scene, so her engagement to Willard Parker comes into the press again. She and Parker are going to be married on October 9, she says. Concerning the ring, the studio compromises. They tape the ring with flesh-colored adhesive.
April 51 rides an elephant at the charity opening of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey show in New York. Other celebrities taking part are Lily Pons, Ella Raines, Jimmy Durante, Ed Wynn, Bob Hope, Cyd Charisse, Laraine Day, Jack Dempsey, Robert Montgomery, Lauritz Melchior, Patrice Munsel, Celeste Holm, and Ken Murray.
May 51 she and Parker are signed to co-star in the TV series "Boss Lady." The series calls for 36 films a year, each budgeted at $18,000 for the next five years.
July 51 columnist Armand Archerd reports that she and Parker couldn`t decide who would get top billing on the letterheads. A compromise ends in equal credits.
12 October 51
marries Parker in a three-minute ceremony in Beverly Hills. He`s 38; she`s 33. It`s his second and her third marriage. Afterwards, they leave on a brief honeymoon to Palm Springs.
January 52 the press hails her a walking treasury as she models diamond jewelry at a Hollywood benefit show. As a novelty, she wears both earrings on one ear.
February 52 makes her singing debut in Weekend with Father. "She displays a voice so pleasing that an entirely new field of opportunity seems opened to her."
June 52 sparks fly over her new TV series "Boss Lady." She and Parker say they`ll sue producer Jack Wrather. "They were replaced in the series by Lynn Bari and Glenn Langan when a shampoo sponsor discovered that Virginia had collected $5,000 for endorsing a rival shampoo on the home screens."
July 53 will headline CBS`s "Vanity and Mrs. Fair," due in the fall
January 54 she and Parker are pictured attending a party in Beverly Hills
January 55 she and Parker are reported "not going in at Ida Lupino`s party because they saw no cars outside the house. There were 40 guests inside. Ida had asked everybody to come in taxi cabs."
June 55 for his part in TV`s "The Texas Ranger," her husband is asked by sponsors General Mills neither to smoke nor drink in public nor to frequent nightclubs. Because he has to be an all-out American type Texan, he has to get rid of his Jaguar and ride around in an American automobile.
July 57 Jan Sterling predicts her 12-year-old stepdaughter, Maggie, will crash the movies as a glamour girl by the time she is 17
September 59 she and her 15-year-old daughter, Margaret, attend the final rites for Paul Douglas in Hollywood. Douglas died at age 52 of a heart attack.
4 April 60 her daughter is granted a $150-a-month allowance from Douglas` $111,500 estate by the Los Angeles Superior Court. Virginia had asked for $250 a month for Maggie.
August 60 films "Meet the Girls," an eventually unsold pilot about small-town girls in the big city. Her co-stars are Mamie Van Doren and Gale Robbins.
November 60 is awarded child support payments totalling $400 monthly from the estate left by her former husband, Paul Douglas
2 January 92 as Virginia Field, she dies at age 74 in Palm Desert, California, of cancer. Her husband survives. Parker will die at age 84 in 1996 in Rancho Mirage, California, from heart failure.