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Show once in a while, a writer Every on a story almost too good to-- be true. Gene Tierney story is ' like that , Within a few years, instead of everything in her life being very wrong, everything is becoming very right During the long time Gene was mentally ill a casualty of emotional defeats, unhappy romances, ' and a twicebrbkenmarriage used to insist: "If only this girl could have a successful romance and marriage, she would be all right for the rest of her life." The first dozen or more times Belle Tierney said this, her son Howard kept silent But finally, be lieving it essential that his mother face reality, he protested: "Do you really think any guy, any guy Gene would want, would marry a girl who has been ill for years?" Understandable as Howard Tier-neattitude was then, events have proved him to be the pessimist and his mother the realist Today Gene is married to a millionaire, W. Howard Lee of Houston, her-mot- her y's GEME E Texas, Professionally, too,. Gene who is 41 has a new life. She is starring in Otto Preminger's "Advise and Consent," which will be one of the big pictures of 1962. With a quick, wide smile, Gene says, "And now that I havemy foot in the door I hope to make other pictures. I do not want to work steadily, just when something really interesting is offered. Howard, who's very fond of the theater and movies, likes me to work, if I wish. .. FINDS A MEW LIFE Out of the shadows of mental illness, love came to a troubled actress and with it renewed hope as a woman and a star r- " A Good Comeback Hole "I'm glad now I didn't make my comeback, after an absence of seven years, in 'Return to Peyton Place.' Howard and I well might have blamed the loss of our baby, when I was 4 months pregnant, oh the fact that I'd been working. Also, this part might have typed me for mother roles. Dolly Harrison, whom I play in 'Advise and Consent,' is a famous Washington hostess. This jiart might lead me to the type of roles Lana Turner plays so well:" mature women, but sophisticated and glamorous." It is an accepted fact that the hardest role any actress can play is herself. Otherwise, we would have said that roles like these should be easy for Gene. With her background and . By ADELE WHITELY FLETCHER schooling, Gene always has been more of a social than a Hollywood image, Recently, Gwen Cafritz, the 4 Family Weekly, December 31. 1961 famous Washington hostess nbt un-liGene's "Dolly Harrison," gave a ball on the occasion of, the Lees being in the capital, where location scenes were being filmed. Gene wore a white Cassini gown, tiered with fringe. "It's the same type gown I wore in 'Razor's Edge' years ago only that was black. Cassini clothes are dateless." Christina, Gene's 13 - year - old daughter by former husband Oleg Cassini, chose this dress for her mother. "Tina goes to her father's collections and picks out'the things she thinks would suit me," Gene explained proudly. "She has beautiful taste. She is her father's ke daughter." , - She's her mother's daughter, too. The day we lunched with Gene at her Washington hotel, she wore one of those simple, black dresses that are nothing yet very much something, a double strand of pearls, white kid gloves, and the rare shining look possessed by those women whrhave the capacity to return the love given to them. A Flair for Clothes Always, Gene has worn the simplest things with a flair. It isn't strange that a man as as Oleg Cassini should have fallen in love with her, that a dozen or more of Hollywood's more attractive gentlemen should have been her beaus, or that the late Ali Khan should have followed her around the world. When Gene married Oleg Cassini, she was not of legal age and the clothes-conscio- head-over-he- us els caused by her parents made unpleasant headlines. Gene's and Oleg's marriage never had a chance to put down roots; he often had to be in New York, and she could not leave Hollywood. Her studio, confident she could be a big star, cast her in one picture after another. Also, unhappily, a baby born to Gene and Oleg suffered brain damage as a result of Gene having contracted German measles in the of her pregnancy while working at the Hollywood Canteen to-- do first-month- for servicemen. V Gene and Oleg separated, and it looked pr a time. as if there would be a divorce. reconciled and Tina f Instead, they was Dora. But againv in spite of their best efforts, the marriage did not work, and the' divorce went through. Oleg became more and more famous as a couturier, and Gene be- - s |