Fern Gwendolyn Persons (née Ball; July 27, 1910 – July 22, 2012) was an American film and television actress and a member of the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists from 1937 until her death. Her film credits included '' Field of Dreams'' and '' Hoosiers''. Persons served on the national

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...

(SAG) from 1976–98. She also sat on SAG's Chicago Branch Council for 44 years and the AFTRA Chicago Local Board for more than thirty years. Much of her work at SAG and

AFTRA The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording a ...

focused on improving the professional acting opportunities for older actors.

Life and career

Fern Gwendolyn Ball was born in 1910 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and moved to

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropoli ...

as a young girl with her family. She earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in drama from Kalamazoo College in 1933. She later received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachel ...

of acting from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now called

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. She graduated magna cum laude and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

from both colleges. She was also awarded the Otto Kahn Prize for excellence in acting at Carnegie. Ball met her future husband, Max Persons, while both were college students. They married in 1935. Once she graduated from Carnegie, Persons worked in Detroit in radio for a short period. The family, which now included a newborn daughter, then moved to Chicago so Persons could pursue her acting career in the latter half of the 1930s. Persons joined

(SAG) in 1937 and became the fifth member of the SAG Chicago Branch when she joined in 1953. She was elected to the Chicago Branch Council in 1962 and served for forty-four years until 2006, when she stepped down only because she could no longer drive. She also served more than thirty years on the AFTRA Chicago Local Board. Persons was elected to the SAG National Board in 1976, and served on that body until 1998. During that time, from 1977–81, she was elected SAG 5th national vice president. She served as a SAG Regional Branch Division representative on TV/Theatrical and Commercials negotiating committees throughout the 1980s and intermittently through the 1990s.

Personal life

Fern Ball married Max Persons in October 1935 and remained married for thirty-six years until his death in November 1971. On July 27, 1999,

Chicago Mayor The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and ...

Richard Daley officially declared "Fern Persons Day" to mark her 89th birthday. The day honored her contributions to the Chicago arts and acting communities. Persons had previously resided in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

. Persons moved to Colorado in 2010 to be closer to her daughter.

Death

She died in her sleep on July 22, 2012, five days before her 102nd birthday in

Littleton, Colorado Littleton is a home rule municipality city located in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

. She was survived by her daughter, Nancy Rockafellow, three grandsons and six great-grandchildren.

Filmography

;Films *'' The Golden Gloves Story'' (1950) - Mrs. Burke *''Man of Steel'' (1965) *'' On the Right Track'' (1981) - Flower Lady *''Hudson Taylor'' (1981) *''

Class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...

'' (1983) - Headmistress DeBreul *''

Risky Business ''Risky Business'' is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Brickman (in his directorial debut) and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Best known as Cruise's breakout film, ''Risky Business'' was a critica ...

'' (1983) - Lab Teacher *'' Grandview, U.S.A.'' (1984) - Teacher *'' Hoosiers'' (1986) - Opal Fleener *'' Field of Dreams'' (1989) - Annie's Mother *'' Prelude to a Kiss'' (1992) - Elderly Woman *'' The Secret'' (2001) - Great Aunt Daria *'' Boricua'' (2004) - Hilde Klingenberg (final film role) ;Television *'' Those Endearing Young Charms''; main cast (1952) - Abbe Charm *''

The Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised ...

''; 1 episode (1956) *''

Adventure in Dairyland ''Adventure in Dairyland'' is a television serial that aired in 1956 on ABC as part of the second season of '' The Mickey Mouse Club''. The serial starred Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg of Spin and Marty and featured Kevin Corcoran i ...

''; main cast (1956) - Mrs. McCandless *'' Cavalcade of America''; 1 episode (1957) - Mrs. Hubbard *''

Chicago Story ''Chicago Story'' is an American crime drama television series that aired for 13 episodes on NBC from March 6 to June 11, 1982, following a 2-hour television film pilot that was broadcast earlier on March 15, 1981. Synopsis The series followed ...

''; TV Movie (1982) *''

American Playhouse ''American Playhouse'' is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Overview It premiered on January 12, 1982, with ''The Shady Hill Kidnapping'', written and narrated by John Cheever an ...

''; 1 episode (1984) - Aunt Vera *'' Hard Knox''; TV Movie (1984) *'' Jack and Mike''; 1 episode (1987) *''

Sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

''; 1 episode (1987) - Rebecca Sable *'' Mario and the Mob''; TV Movie (1992) *''

Missing Persons A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, ...

''; 1 episode (1993) - Althea Swanson *'' Early Edition''; 2 episodes (1997–1999) - Mrs. Flowers, Librarian / Helen *'' ER''; 1 episode (1999) - Old Woman on El

References

External links

*
Notice of death of Fern Persons
SAG/AFTRA website; accessed March 4, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Persons, Fern 1910 births 2012 deaths People from Kalamazoo, Michigan Actresses from Evanston, Illinois Actresses from Michigan American film actresses American television actresses American centenarians Kalamazoo College alumni Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Women centenarians