Mickey Kuhn fell in love with Cammie King Conlon on the set of Gone with the Wind more than 70 years ago. The pair remained friends for the rest of her life.
Kuhn plans to speak at a memorial service for Conlon Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Murray Arts Center on Stilesboro Road in Kennesaw. Her son, Matt Conlon, will also talk at the service arranged by the Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum.
The former child actress died of cancer Sept. 1 in Fort Bragg, Calif. Fellow cast members Ann Rutherford and Patrick Curtis attended earlier services for Conlon in California.
Kuhn was seven when he played the part of Beau Wilkes and Conlon was five when she played Bonnie Blue Butler in the movie classic. Kuhn remembers flubbing his lines when he had a scene with the young beauty.
During a take with Clark Gable, he looked at Cammie and missed his lines, “Hello, Uncle Rhett.” Instead, he said, “Hello, Uncle Clark."
“I was smitten, I couldn’t even sleep at night,” Kuhn said. “She was the first love of my life. Her loss is inexplicable.”
The actress retired from show business after playing the role of Faline in Walt Disney's "Bambi" three years after Gone with the Wind.
Conlon’s son said this weekend’s service will be a tribute for the fans who supported his mother. Since the film’s 50th anniversary, the film's surviving actors have been celebrities at Gone with the Wind events around the country.
“Mom knew who her fans were and why she was so regarded,” Matt Conlon said. “And she loved Marietta. They treated her like a queen.”
Connie Sutherland, director of the Marietta museum, remembers Conlon signing autographs and posing for pictures at her last appearance in Marietta two years ago. The actress attended four events at the museum. Kuhn, Curtis, Rutherford and the late Fred Crane, also a cast member, have also appeared at museum events.
“I was star struck when I met her,” Sutherland said. “She had no airs and always put me at ease. She had a great sense of humor and didn’t take herself seriously.”
In her memoir, Conlon talked about the 1939 movie's intensely loyal fan base. She tagged one of the more loyal fans, Kathleen Marcaccio, as den mother of a group known as ‘the Windies.’
“Cammie came to know us Windies and our families,” Marcaccio said. “Her appreciation was touching.”
Marcaccio, of Royal Oak, Mich., sent e-mails to about 90 fans about this weekend’s service, which she plans to attend. She met Conlon 21 years ago at a Clark Gable Foundation event in Cadiz, Ohio.
Matt Conlon looks forward to meeting his mother’s supporters and plans to tell them how much they meant to her.
“She always focused on other people,” Conlon said. “She was a class act. The world did not revolve around her.”
The memorial service is open to the public. The Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum requests that people planning to attend call 770-794-5576.
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