Lucile Browne

About Lucile Browne

Lucile Ruth Browne (March 18, 1907 – May 10, 1976) was an American film actress. She starred opposite John Wayne in the 1935 films Texas Terror and Rainbow Valley.

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harris L. Browne, she was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1923. She began studying elocution when she was 10 years old, studied under an instructor from the University of Chicago, and attended Noyes School of Expression in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a 1925 graduate of St. Petersburg High School.

In 1926, Browne was named Miss Florida in a beauty contest sponsored by the Tampa Times as judges selected her based on photographs of dozens of candidates. She had been named Miss St. Petersburg by a magazine the previous year. Before she made films, she worked as a model in New York and acted with a theatrical company in Chicago.

Gabby Hayes, John Wayne, Browne and Fern Emmett in Texas Terror (1935)
While filming The Airmail Mystery in 1932, Browne met her future husband, actor James Flavin. They married soon after and stayed together for more than 40 years until his death April 23, 1976.[ Browne died 17 days later on May 10. The couple had one son, Dr. William James Flavin, a professor.