Express & Star

Surely, there's only one heroine and that's Shirley

My current superhero is actually a superheroine. Former child actress Shirley Temple died last week aged 85. She had a quite extraordinary career. She was also my namesake.

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Until the night before I was baptised, I was destined to be called Joan.

Mum decided that it was a perfect name for her first-born. Did she have higher hopes for me than I ever knew about? Certainly I was dispatched to Marcia Munslow's dance classes and sang on the chapel anniversaries.

My aims for stage stardom took a serious blow however, when I secretly longed to be Snow White in a show at the dance school. When the cast was chosen, my role was Grumpy, one of the seven dwarfs.

I bore the rejection stoically and mum patiently made the dark green costume. I did not create a fuss, after all, I was called Shirley and had an example to follow. What would Shirley Temple have done? Been gracious, I guess. Except that she'd have probably got the lead role anyway.

When Judy Garland got the Wizard of Oz lead Shirley would have loved, her gracious comment years later was "perhaps the gods knew best."

Her great contribution came after that early showbiz career, Shirley Temple Black went into politics, gave distinguished service to her nation and was a successful US Ambassador to the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. She was bright, decent and a life-long charmer. I'm proud to have been named after her.

It's reported that Shirley died peacefully with her family round her, in her own bed. When our time comes, none of us can ask for more than that. Hero or not.

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