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Carole Lombard Memorial Room
On January 16, 1942 Carole Lombard boarded the TWA DC-3 in
Las Vegas
with her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and 16 others. Shortly after takeoff, the plane veered off course and the plane crashed into a cliff near the summit of Potosi Mountain. Everyone was killed. She was 33. The actress was famous for her roles in comedies, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable.
Mt. Potosi
What is now dedicated to her memory as "The Carole Lombard Room" at the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Nevada was used as headquarters for search and recovery operations.
Hysterical with grief and adrift, Gable drank heavily and struggled to complete his work on "Somewhere I'll Find You." In August 1942, Gable decided to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He spent most of the war in the United Kingdom, and flew several combat missions earning several decorations for his efforts. He would remarry twice more, but when he died in 1960 Gable was buried next to Lombard.
CAROLE LOMBARD DIES IN CRASH AFTER AIDING U.S. DEFENSE BOND CAMPAIGN
Life Magazine
Carole's last appearance
Jan. 16 1942 Movie Actress Carole Lombard was Killed) in a plane crash high in the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada. In a sense she gave her life for her country, for earlier in the week Miss Lombard had traveled to her native- State of Indiana to foster the Government's Defense Bond campaign. All the previous day she had cheerfully bucked crowds in the Statehouse at Indianapolis. In a few exhausting hours, standing in the jammed and hectic lobby of the capitol building, she had sold $2,017,531 worth of Defense Bonds and Stamps. That night she appeared before additional thousands in the Cadle Tabernacle and led them in singing The Star-Spangled Banner.
At 4a.m. Miss Lombard boarded the T.W_A. plane at Indianapolis Airport. She told LIFE’s Photographer Meron Davis that, though she had been strongly urged to return to Hollywood by rail she had found herself unable to face three days on the “choo-choo train.” Her plane was not a sleeper but she didn't mind sitting up. “When I get home.” said Miss Lombard. “I'll flop in bed and sleep for twelve hours.” Thirty-six hours later searchers reached the wreckage where her body lay.
Clark Gable & Carole Lobard at their ranch in Encino, Ca.
