Harriette Arlene Lake

1909 - Born on the 22nd of January in Valley City, North Dakota.

1927 - She left home very young and began her film career as an extra in Broadway Nights, aged 18.

1929-1930 - She appeared as a chorus girl in such films as The Show of Shows and Whoopee.

1934 - She signed a contract with Columbia Pictures but after two years the studio released her from this contract.

1936 - She was signed by RKO Pictures. After a string of films that failed to attract an audience.

1939 - She left RKO and was signed to MGM, making her first film for them.

1941 - On the 24th of November, she appeared in the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of Maisie Was a Lady.

1945-1947 - The popularity of the film series led to her own radio program, The Adventures of Maisie, broadcast on CBS.

1953-1957 - She was the lead in the series Private Secretary.

1965 - She was heard as the voice of Mom in the series My Mother the Car, which co-starred Jerry Van Dyke.

1967 - Her old boss, Desi Arnaz, the first husband of Lucille Ball, approached her to co-star with Eve Arden as battling neighbors in The Mothers-In-Law but NBC felt that Sothern's style was too similar to Arden's.

1980 - She resumed working sporadically on television, including a television remake of her earlier success A Letter to Three Wives.

1984 - She retired from acting, and moved to Ketchum, Idaho.

2001 - Died on the 15th of March, from heart failure at the age of 92. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion picture and television.