Patricia Kirkland

[2] As a child, she primarily lived in Hollywood,[3] but she moved frequently with her family "between the Coast, New York and a farm in Pennsylvania.

"[5] Before Kirkland finished high school, she acted in the play Susan and God at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania, and while she was a senior she portrayed the title character on the Meet Corliss Archer radio series prior to its moving to the West Coast.

[6] After she graduated from high school, she again portrayed Archer, this time in the Chicago company of Kiss and Tell,[2] which became the top box-office attraction in that city.

[8] Kirkland's Broadway performance in that role led a reviewer to write in The Sydney Morning Herald, "Young Miss Kirkland brought a delightful spirit of freshness and anxious youthful questing to this undistinguished comedy of a young girl's ambition to go on the stage.

[14] Kirkland and actress Bethel Leslie co-chaired the Mary MacArthur Memorial Committee, which raised funds for research and treatment of respiratory polio.

[16] By January 1952, funds collected from people in the theatrical community exceeded $100,000, and additional research centers had been started in Ann Arbor, Houston, and Los Angeles.