I friended her on Facebook. That is how I found out that Cammie had passed on. Instead of getting a message from her, my friend request was accepted by Cammie King Conlon Remembered… I was shocked and dismayed. She was so full of life and mischief, she could have played the feisty grandma in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. A character, a real pistol.
The last email I received from Cammie in June 2009 was about her memoir “Bonnie Blue Butler — a Gone with the Wind Memoir.” She wrote that some So and So was selling it on Ebay. Cammie died of lung cancer on a Wednesday morning, September 1 2010 at her home in Fort Bragg. She was 76 years old.
Cammie Conlon played Bonnie Blue Butler, the doomed only child of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, in the 1939 classic movie Gone With the Wind when she was just 4 years old. She remembered that she loved the pony and said that Clark Gable was very kind to her. She only had two scenes with Vivien Leigh and one of them was cut. Her mother helped her learn her lines but she forgot sometimes. Until the day that the director told her that his children and other people’s children were depending upon her to be properly prepared for each scene.
In May 2008, Cammie and I had a delicious breakfast together at the pet friendly, romantic with gorgeous ocean views, Little River Inn where she worked. She kept me laughing with funny tidbits about her showbiz career that ended at the ripe old age of five. Instantly, her charming manner put me at ease. She did not want to talk about herself except to say that there are four museums dedicated to the movie and she attended teas and memorabilia shows every year.
It was her first and only movie. She got the role when her older sister, Diane, got sick just before filming. The 74-page memoir has cast and family photos, describes life growing up in the 30’s and 40’s in Los Angeles. Cammie also discusses the huge bash billionaire Ted Turner (CNN and Turner Movie Company and owner of Gone With The Wind) staged on the movie’s 50th anniversary in 1989.
She created a blog for the memoir book at http://bonniebluebutler.wordpress.com.
Well, Ms Cammie aka Bonnie Blue Butler, we’ll be thinking about you tomorrow. Fiddle dee dee. RIP.
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