And there goes Gale Storm, actress from the 40s and 50s, best known for her role in My Little Margie. She also had a smash record with a cover version of I Hear You Knockin’.
Gale Storm (real name:Josephine Owaissa Cottle) April 5, 1922 - June 27, 2009
Alright. Now I’m pissed. I won’t miss some of the dead-this-week, but I grew up watching My Little Margie in the 50s. Charles Farrell.
Then, a few years later, with Zazu Pitts in The Gale Storm Show.
She(Gale, not Zazu) was hot to an 11 year old.
If my name was Josephine Owaissa Cattle, I’d probably change it for show biz, too.
I remember re-runs of My Little Margie on TV when I was a kid. It creeped me out when the picture of Margie and Vern came to life. I can’t remember anything else about the show.
I had forgotten all about that! I grew up with Margie, and all I remember is her big sparkly smile and her perky but take-no-nonsense attitude. Was Vern her dad or her boss?
Wow! I had not thought of Gale Storm for a long time. RIP. 
I read that Gale Storm (get it -> Gale is a type of windy storm), got that name when the movie studio wanted to create an “actress” so they picked the name and the roles and auditioned actresses and she won. Thus she got the movie contract and the name Gale Storm. Had Josephine Owaissa Cattle lost the role another actress would have been christianed “Gale Storm”
Her dad. Even at 7 it creeped me out - not the picture, but the two of them seemed very close.
I think I enjoyed the Gale Storm Show, set on an ocean liner IIRC, a bit better.
Someone should set up a channel showing shows from the '50s. These, December Bride and Pete & Gladys (with Harry Morgan,) Love That Bob, (with Cleo, the talking Basset Hound) as well as the ones which have been repeated, like Burns & Allen. I could happily go into my senility watching those shows with adult eyes.
So would I! But Gale Storm was born a Cottle.
Her male counterpart was Lee Bonnell, who was supposed to become “Terry Belmont.” He didn’t end up with much of a film career, but had a long marriage to Gale Storm.
Sad news.
Sadder still - I can remember watching her show as a kid…geez, I’m getting old.
I watched both My Little Margie and Oh! Suzanna (the syndicated name of The Gale Storm Show when I was a kid and was a big fan of both. I also associate the Christmas Song “Let it Snow” with her, since she sang it on one of her shows. Of the various celebrities dying this week, she’s the one I had the most fond memories of.
For the record, on My Little Margie, her father’s boss, Mr. Honeywell*, was played by the gravel voiced Clarence Kolb, another reason I like His Girl Friday so much. I also though Zasu Pitts was a hoot.
*Of Honeywell and Todd. I got a real kick seeing a vanity press a few years ago that called themselves “Todd and Honeywell.”
Cleo was on The People’s Choice with Jackie Cooper.
I had checked Gale Storm’s website a few months ago to see if I could find a copy of her recording of “Winter Warm.” She will be missed and remembered.