Born on a struggling North Carolina tobacco farm in 1922, Ava Gardner rose to become one of the most arresting screen presences of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a woman whose beauty opened doors that her raw talent then kicked wide open. Her three marriages, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, generated more press than most stars earn in a lifetime, yet the private Ava was far quieter and more complicated than the tabloids ever admitted. She died in London in 1990, largely alone, having spent her final years wondering whether any of it had been worth it.
A Childhood on a Failing Tobacco Farm
Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on December 24, 1922, in Grabtown, a farming community in Johnston County, North Carolina. She was the youngest of seven children born to Jonas Bailey Gardner and Mary Elizabeth Gardner, known as Molly. The family scratched out a living growing tobacco, but the land was unforgiving and the money was never enough. When the farm finally failed, the Gardners packed up and relocated to Newport News, Virginia, hoping for a fresh start. The Great Depression made that start harder than anyone anticipated. Jonas Gardner died of bronchitis when Ava was just 15, a blow that also severed her from the Baptist faith she had been raised in. The family priest failed to attend her father at his deathbed, and she never fully forgave organized religion for it. They eventually returned to North Carolina, where Ava finished high school and trained as a secretary.