Earlyne Schools
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Earlyne (sometimes spelled 'Earleyne' and pronounced 'Arleen') Schools was born Anna Earlyne Schools in Henrico, VA, to Clairborne Guy Schools and Almira Schools (née Dunford). Her father worked as a manager for Life & Casualty Insurance. She had two older sisters: Ima Cassell and Lucille Eugenia. While growing up, the family lived in Norfolk, VA, where it was readily apparent to everyone that Earlyne had a proclivity for music, especially singing and playing the piano. She caught the attention of Hollywood and found herself included in the cast of The Knight Is Young (1938), a musical short that featured the talents a not-yet 21-year-old June Allyson and dancer Hal Le Roy, who headlined the production. While playing the piano, Earlyne sang the H. Lane Wilson and Ellis Walton tune "Carmeña" in a pleasing and lilting soprano voice. But her stay in Hollywood was brief and this is the only known appearance for her in film. Still in high school, she soon returned to Norfolk where she continued to perform, even singing "Ave Maria" at a funeral for, ironically, a funeral director. She graduated from Maury High School in June 1941, garnering notice in the school's yearbook, a yearbook dedicated to the theme of the importance of music in a world, and the U.S. soon to be, caught up in war, with this sentiment posted next to her picture: "Prominent places and prominent people have claimed Erleyne's glorious voice. Her lilting melodies and attractive personality should assure her a brilliant future." This tribute to her talents is remarkable in the context that most of her female classmates were lauded for no other enterprise or aspiration than perhaps achieving the goal in their collective futures of secretary or housewife. Regrettably, five years later, Earlyne met an untimely death in Manhattan, NY; she was only 23 years old. Her family laid her remains to rest in Norfolk.