Actress, Singer, Pianist. She was best known for playing the character roles of mothers, debutantes, maids, and nurses, usually in comedy films, and classic western films. She will be best remembered for playing the role of 'Myra Willoughby' in the western film, "The Devil's Trail" (1942). The film which was directed by Lambert Hillyer, which was written for the screen by Robert Lee Johnson, which was based on the story, "The Town In Hell's Backyard," by Philip Ketchum, and which also starred Bill Elliott, Tex Ritter, Frank Mitchell, Ruth Ford, Edmond Cobb, and Joe McGuinn, tells the story of U.S. Marshal Tex Martin, who is searching for Wild Bill Hickok, who has been falsely accused of murder, tumbles across the outlaw camp of Bull McQuade who advocates slavery in Kansas. Wild Bill Hickok, hiding in the Bull McQuade camp, is surrendered by the renegade, who wants no trouble with the federal government. Prisoners of Bull McQuade include Doc Willoughby, his daughter Myra Willoughby and his servant Cannonball. Doc Willoughby heads the Frontier Emigrant Aid Society and Bull McQuade is trying to wrest from him the names of his co-workers. Cannonball rescues Wild Bill Hickok, and hides with him in the mountains. U.S. Marshal Tex Martin, disarmed, heads back to Bull McQuade's camp, still not believing Wild Bill Hickok's story about the other prisoners. Myra Willoughby escapes and hides in a deserted shack, but she is trailed by Sid Howland, a Bull McQuade henchman. Ella, Bull McQuade's girl, confirms Wild Bill Hickok's story to U.S. Marshal Tex Martin and gives him a gun. He immediately goes after Wild Bill Hickok, following the trail of Bull McQuade's henchmen, who are also hunting the famed gunman. U.S. Marshal Tex Martin runs across Sid Howland, who is about to shoot Myra Willoughby, and wounds him after a terrific battle. Myra Willoughby and U.S. Marshal Tex Martin head for the cave in which Wild Bill Hickok and Cannonball are hiding. When Bull McQuade and his men discover the wounded Sid Howland, they set out in swift pursuit. She was born one of two children in Kansas City, Missouri, to Michael J. O'Hearn (1866-1945), and his wife Teresa C. Etchingham O'Hearn (1882-1957), on November 8, 1913. She was educated locally and while growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, she studied voice and sang the title role in the opera, "Mignon." She also appeared on WDAF television occasionally as a lyric soprano in her native Kansas City, Missouri, before moving to Los Angeles, California. She later attended the prestigious University of California Los Angeles (or UCLA), in Los Angeles, California, where she appeared in a stage production of the play, "Of Thee I Sing." She also acted at the Westwood Community Theater in Westwood, California, and at the Pasadena Community Playhouse in Pasadena, California. She was working as a stenographer for the Los Angeles Times Newspaper in Los Angeles, California, when Columbia Pictures asked her to take a screen test. She was quickly signed to a contract and she made her actual film debut playing the role of 'Nora Mandan' in the western film, "Thunder Over The Prairie" (1941). The film which was directed by Lambert Hillyer, which was written for the screen by Betty Burbridge, which was based on the "Medico," books by James Rubel, and which also starred Charles Starrett, Cliff Edwards, Stanley Brown, David Sharpe, Danny Mummert, and Joe McGuinn, tells the story of Dr. Steven "Steve" Monroe who after arriving in Rock City learns that his friend, Roy Mandan, has had his property ruined by dust storms and is forced to work on an irrigation project for a crooked construction-engineer named Ace Hartley. A heavy rain storm endangers the dam, which has been constructed of inferior materials, and Ace Hartley and his henchmen blow it up and then blame Roy Mandan. When Roy Mandan stands trial, his brother, Clay Mandan, stampedes a herd of wild horses into town and into the courthouse. Roy Mandan is shot during the melee and dies in Dr. Steven "Steve" Monroe's arms. Dr. Steven "Steve" Monroe then straps on his shooting-irons, from his gunfighter days before becoming a doctor, and sets out to expose Ace Hartley and his gang. Besides, playing the role of 'Nora Mandan' in the western film, "Thunder Over The Prairie" (1941), and playing the role of 'Myra Willoughby' in the western film, "The Devil's Trail" (1942), her many other film credits include, "The Richest Man In Town" (1941), "Honolulu Lu" (1941), "The Man Who Returned To Life" (1942), "The Adventures Of Martin Eden" (1942), "Two Yanks In Trinidad" (1942), "Alias Boston Blackie" (1942), "Blondie's Blessed Event" (1942), "How Spry I Am" (1942), "Not A Ladies' Man" (1942), "Meet The Stewarts" (1942), and "Submarine Raider" (1942). Her last film role was playing 'Mary Mack' in the action romance film drama, "Parachute Nurse" (1942). The film which was directed by Charles Barton, which was written for the screen by Rian James, which was based on a story by Elizabeth Meehan, and which also starred Marguerite Chapman, William Wright, Shirley Patterson, Frank Sully, and Kay Harris, tells the story of two hospital nurses named Glenda White and Dottie Morrison who join the newly-formed corps of parachute nurses to be dropped at sites where ordinary medical aide is inaccessible. They discover they have let themselves in for a life of rigorous training governed by strict military rules, with the only bright spots being their instructors, Lieutenant Jim Woods and Sergeant Peters. After weeks of arduous training, one of the earlier-entered classes is ready for practice jumps. Tragedy strikes when Gretchen Ernst, an American-born nurse who has been ostracized because she has a brother in the German army, commits suicide by failing to pull her rip cord during her jump. When it is time for Glenda White's class to make their jumps, Glenda White remembers Gretchen Ernst and cannot summon enough courage to make the leap. Lieutenant Jim Woods and Sergeant Peters are determined to force her to complete the course. She retired from acting shortly thereafter to focus on married life and to raise a family. She passed away in Kodiak, Alaska, on September 22, 1992, at the age of 78, and she was buried in Kodiak Cemetery in Kodiak, Alaska. She was married to Frederick Seaforth Dorrien "Fred" Pate (1916-1969), an employee of Columbia Pictures, in Yuma, Arizona, on March 7, 1942, and they were together until his death on September 12, 1969, at the age of 53. The couple had two children together, Susan born in 1943, and William born in 1947. In her private life, she was known as Mary Eileen O'Hearn Pate.