Margaret Pellegrini
Margaret Pellegrini was an American actress, vaudeville performer and dancer, best known for playing one of the Munchkins from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Until her death in 2013, she was one of the three surviving munchkins, the other two being Jerry Maren and Ruth Robinson Duccini.
Life and career
Pellegrini was born Margaret Williams in Tuscumbia, Alabama on September 23, 1923. When she was helping a relative in a potato chip booth at the Tennessee State Fair, a group of little people came by and asked if she wanted to join their show, Henry Kramer's Midgets. "At that time I didn't think I was a midget," says Pellegrini. In the film, Pellegrini played a "sleepyhead" flower pot and Munchkin villager. After the film, she married Willie Pellegrini and had two children. Through the years, Pellegrini frequently appeared at surviving Munchkins of Oz festivities.
Pellegrini was present on November 21, 2007, when the remaining Munchkins were given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was also named the Grand Marshal of that year's annual "Oz-Stravaganza" parade in Chittenango, New York, but health issues prevented her from attending. Near the time of her death, she was described as a widowed great-great-grandmother living in Glendale, Arizona, with a room in her house devoted to her treasured Oz collectibles.
Death
Pellegrini died in Glendale, Arizona on August 7, 2013, due to complications from a stroke she had two days earlier. She outlived every major cast member of The Wizard of Oz. She was 89. Her burial is at Holy Cross Cemetery in Avondale, Arizona.