Eugene Willford "Gene" Markey was an American writer, producer, screenwriter, and highly decorated naval officer.
22 Facts About Gene Markey
1.
2.
Gene Markey's father, Eugene Lawrence Markey, was a colonel in the United States Army.
3.
Gene Markey was a skilled sketch artist, which gained him entry, after World War I, into the Art Institute of Chicago starting in 1919 and finishing in 1920.
4.
Gene Markey's book Literary Lights was a collection of fifty caricatures of important literary authors of the day.
5.
Gene Markey went to Hollywood in 1929 and became a screenwriter for Twentieth Century Fox.
6.
Gene Markey was the producer of the 1937 Shirley Temple film, Wee Willie Winkie, among others.
7.
Gene Markey was married to Hedy Lamarr from 1939 to 1940 and to Myrna Loy from 1946 to 1950.
8.
Gene Markey then joined the US Naval Reserve in 1920, and it was during World War II that he made his greatest mark.
9.
Gene Markey had a yacht, Melinda, that he donated to the United States Navy for use as a submarine chaser.
10.
Gene Markey was highly decorated; among his awards were the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Combat V, a Navy Commendation Medal, Italy's Star of Solidarity, and France's Legion of Honor.
11.
Gene Markey returned to Hollywood after the war and, on September 27,1952, he married his fourth wife, Lucille Parker Wright, the widow of Warren Wright, owner of the Calumet Farm racing stable.
12.
Gene Markey developed something of a knack for naming the farm's horses.
13.
Gene Markey was a lover of dogs; he owned a black Labrador Retriever named Lucky that lived to the very unusual old age of 17.
14.
Mrs Gene Markey had a dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named Timmy Tammy.
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Mrs Gene Markey carried the dog with her in her purse everywhere she went.
16.
Shortly after this marriage, Gene Markey would become good friends with Ralph Wilson, who later was the founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League.
17.
One of Mrs Gene Markey's hobbies was collecting statues of eagles.
18.
Gene Markey was very fond of the time he spent in Kentucky, quickly becoming a fixture on its social scene and becoming good friends with many members of the thoroughbred racing community.
19.
Gene Markey had two brands of private reserve bourbon distilled that he named "Old Commodore" and "Old Calumet Cabin".
20.
On July 31,1958, Admiral Gene Markey was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Governor Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler Sr.
21.
Gene Markey served as the model for the character played by Burgess Meredith in the 1965 film In Harm's Way, starring his good friend John Wayne.
22.
Admiral and Mrs Gene Markey remained married until his death in 1980, He was buried in the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky.