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Gene Tierney Part II

© K Cruver

Although she was beautiful in her films, they couldn't quite capture all of her. Fortunately I did, even if it was late in my life.
-Spencer Tracy

Gene loved the exotic air that European Oleg Cassini had about him. However, Hollywood at the time was not open to relationships between American women and foreigners, so they secretly eloped to Vegas on June 1, 1941.

Back in Hollywood, Gene still received dinner invitations, but her husband was not included. The marriage was always a tumultous. They often argued because Gene worked long hours, while Cassini struggled to find work.

After her marriage, Gene's father feared losing control of her wages. When she stopped putting money into the Belle-Tier corporation, he sued her for $50,000, claiming he had earned the money as an agent. What Gene didn't know was that her father had been secretly using her earnings in an attempt to save his failing business. She won the suit, but her money was gone. She was never close to her father again.

The United States entered into World War II and Cassini joined the Coast Guard. Soon after, Gene discovered that she was pregnant. Still, she also went to work for the war effort, giving speeches, selling bonds, and serving soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen. One night at the Canteen, she caught German Measles. Though she thought nothing of it at the time, the illness would one day change her life.

Gene gave birth to Daria on October 15, 1943. She was born prematurely and immediately needed blood transfusions. As the child neared her first year, her health declined. She had an unremovable cataract, lacked fluid in her ear and lost her hearing.

Doctors told Gene that Daria would never be able speak and that she would always have the mind of a child. It was then that she learned about the effect German Measles had on a child's brain in the early stages of pregnancy. Though she was reluctant to follow her doctor's advice to institutionalize her daughter, she finally gave in when Daria was four. Around this time, Gene and Cassini decided to separate.

About a year after Daria was born, a woman approached Gene at a party. She said that she had been a marine during World War II and had broken quarantine when she had German Measles, so she could go to the Hollywood Canteen. She had met Gene that night. Gene was stunned, but she didn't tell the woman what had happened to her daughter.

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