Show girl, dancer and actress. Born in Locust Grove, Georgia, Venita had appeared in various stage productions such as the Ziegfeld Follies and most notably the 1933 George White Broadway show "Melody" which featured the music of Sigmund Romberg. Early in her career, the professional spelling of her last name changed from VardOn to VardEn. Within the next two years she arrived in Hollywood and landed an unbilled role as a Ziegfeld girl in MGM's "The Great Ziegfeld." It was at this time that she met and fell in love with film star Jack Oakie. The actor-comedian and his former Follies beauty were married on the evening of March 22, 1936 in their private compartment aboard a Southern Pacific train during a 15 minute stop in Yuma, Arizona. Reportedly Oakie was so nervous, he forgot to kiss the bride. This first version of their marriage was tumultuous to say the least, as they were divorcing two years later. The ink was barely dry on the interlocutory degree when Venita asked the court to rescind the decision as the couple recently reunited and had now decided to remarry and honeymoon in Europe. Jack had convinced her to cancel the divorce proceedings and made up via long distance telephone. "We knew we loved each other all the time," he commented. In the following years, their various separations and reconciliations were dutifully reported in newspapers and film magazines. But by January of 1945, Venita filed for divorce once more and ended their second marriage. Three years later, gossip columnists were hinting that the Oakies were interested in getting back together again. A recent trip to Los Angeles in June of 1948 resulted in Venita staying at Jack's Northridge ranch where her mother, Eva Kemper lived as caretaker. This visit set off another round of rumors. The idea of another reconciliation was considered amusing by the couple, but was thoroughly denied. Early on June 17th, Venita left the ranch and boarded United Airlines DC-6, Flight 624 to New York. After a stopover in Chicago, the plane continued towards its destination. However, shortly after 12:27 pm, according to the report filed by the Civil Aeronautics Board: "A fire warning led the crew to believe that a fire had erupted in the forward cargo hold. They then discharged at least one bank of the CO2 fire extinguisher bottles in the forward cargo hold. Because they did not follow the correct procedure, the cabin pressure relief valves were closed. This caused hazardous concentrations of the gas to enter into the cockpit. This condition reduced the pilots to a state of confusion, resulting in loss of consciousness. An emergency descent was initiated until it suddenly made a shallow left turn, heading towards constantly rising terrain. Five miles east of Shamokin the airplane, flying only 200 feet above the ground, entered a right climbing turn. As it passed to the north of Mt. Carmel (Pennsylvania) the climbing-turning attitude increased sharply. The airplane then crashed in a power line clearing on wooded hillside at an elevation of 1,649 feet. The airplane struck a 66,000 volt transformer, severed power lines and burst into flames." The airplane had crashed at 1:41 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a mere 20 minutes away from its scheduled landing at La Guardia Field. Since then, it has been recognized as the most devastating commercial aviation disaster to occur in the coal region of eastern Pennsylvania. All 39 passengers--including two infants--and 4 crew members were incinerated; verification of identity was difficult and sometimes impossible. The plane had exploded into a furious fireball and scattered itself hundreds of yards. The site was littered with thousands of bits of metal and burning dismembered remnants of human remains. Appalled eyewitnesses noted that as the plane neared the ground, they could see in the windows the pathetic, terrified faces of the passengers. World War II Air Force veterans who had offered their services were overheard commenting as they surveyed the area that they NEVER saw anything like this. Jack Oakie was inconsolable. Described as weeping when attempting to discuss Venita's death with his manager, Morris Small, he was quoted as saying, "I just saw her last night. I didn't go to the plane but saw her a little while before that. I don't know what to say. Even though we were divorced, we were the best of friends. This is one of the worst blows of my life." Mrs. Kemper was described by various newspapers as being overwhelmed with grief. The cremated remains of Venita Vardon and fellow passengers Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace were returned to Los Angeles and interred at Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial Park. Carroll and Wallace are buried together in a private walled area, the Gardens of Memory. Venita's ashes rest in the Great Mausoleum. Venita left an estate of over $20,000 which she specified in her will to be divided between Jack and her mother. Upon her death in 1968, Mrs. Kemper was inurned with her daughter. Biography By Melissa.