My Judy Story
By Brianne

I was one of those children who sat down on the floor in front of the television and watched The Wizard of Oz annually around Christmas, wide-eyed and mesmerized. I distinctly remember asking my mother one day “What ever happened to that actress?” and I got the reply “It was very tragic. She committed suicide pretty young, I think.” That just blew my mind, so I decided to start looking her up online to learn more about her life. And it goes from there…

I learned of a woman with small town, Midwestern roots, just like I have. That little girl from Minnesota known as “Baby Gumm” came to become who we now refer to as “the world’s greatest entertainer”, Judy Garland. At the time I had no knowledge her career besides her immortal portrayal of Dorothy Gale. It turns out Baby Gumm appeared in forty-three short subject and feature length films as well as countless concerts and radio features, all in a forty-five year span.

As I began to explore the many talents of Miss Garland, I started to realize what an amazing person she was. She was incredibly smart, funny, and witty, which are traits that I very much adore in people. In addition, she was a very strong individual. Dealing with a parent’s death at an early age is only one occurrence in Judy’s life that I cannot imagine going through. Throughout all of the so-called tragedies in her life, she managed to see the humor in it all. There have been many people (and probably will be more to come) that refer to Judy’s life as a tragedy… how can you call her life a tragedy when her family, her friends, and not to mention Judy herself didn’t consider her life a tragedy? Her family, friends, and fans instead celebrate all that she was and still is. This enormous life packed into a tiny body that never ran out of love. This human being who could project more emotion into the lyrics of a song than the composer who wrote the song himself could. Someone who could make you cry and laugh in the same breath. Someone who seemed to draw people towards her and make them hang on to her every word… this is Judy Garland. These are the things that drew me towards her. The little girl with the spectacular voice was only the beginning of an incredible woman that will never know how many lives she has impacted, and continues to impact.

So, had Judy lived in the wrong era? Maybe. There are plenty of us now who appreciate her just as much (if not more) than those of her own generation. Thanks to technology, though, we can learn of her career through television, movies, and song as if she really were alive today. Not to mention the various resources available online to anyone who is searching to learn more about Miss Garland as I was. So, I’d like to thank Miss Ginny Sayre for creating this wonderful website, as I have found many hopefully lifelong friends that have helped further introduce me to a whole new world that I hadn’t been previously aware of. Thank you’s are also due to the many sound and screen technicians who have labored to preserve the work of Miss Garland’s and so many others, as well. Last, but definitely not least, I’d like to thank Judy Garland simply for being who she was. I’ve found a role model and a hero all in one amazing person that I will look up to for the rest of my life. In the words of Frank Sinatra, “The rest of us will be forgotten, but never Judy."