O'Driscoll was given more visible parts and began pitching products in magazine advertisements for Max Factor and Royal Crown Cola, among many others.

Universal lent O'Driscoll to MGM for parts in The Secret of Dr Kildare (1939) and Judge Hardy and Son (1940), starring Mickey Rooney.

[9] RKO, however, gave O'Driscoll her first two starring roles, as romantic interest to the cowboy Tim Holt in Wagon Train (1940) and notably as Daisy Mae in the first screen version of Al Capp's popular comic strip Li'l Abner (1940), which also featured Buster Keaton.

Paramount became interested in the actress and acquired her contract, casting her first as a maid in Preston Sturges's classic comedy, The Lady Eve (1941).

The studio lent her back to Universal, which cast her in Olsen and Johnson's Crazy House (1943), then to RKO for Richard Wallace's stylish thriller, The Fallen Sparrow (1943) with Maureen O'Hara.

The following year, she made her last Universal film, Blonde Alibi, receiving top billing as a girl who sets out to prove her lover (Tom Neal) innocent of murder.

[13] O'Driscoll announced her intention to divorce in January 1945, but because of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 it would be delayed until the end of the war.

[15] In March 1947, O'Driscoll established a new residence at the Hotel El Rancho in Las Vegas, Nevada with the intention of filing for divorce a second time.

Among them are Florida-bred millionaires Jolie’s Halo, Super Nakayama, Forbidden Apple, Southern Image, David Junior, Wild Event, Eden’s Storm, Black Bar Spin and In Summation.

The Appletons split their time between a home on Northbrook, Illinois, the farm in Ocala, and an estate on exclusive Indian Creek Island in Miami-Dade.