The EVE ARDEN Only We Knew

THE OUR MISS BROOKS ACTRESS ALWAYS MADE FAMILY HER BIGGEST PRIORITY

- Louise A. Barile, Amanda Champagne-Meadows

No matter how discreet she tried to be, fans always recognized Eve Arden by her deep voice. “It was a thing we ran into all the time, even in Europe in small French villages,” recalls Eve’s son Douglas Brooks West to Closer. “Telephone operators would go, ‘Are you Eve Arden? I recognize your voice.’”

That’s no surprise. Fans knew Eve from a career that spanned film, Broadway, radio and television. Her spirited starring role in Our Miss Brooks brought her into living rooms every week from 1948 to 1957. Despite her success, Eve tried to maintain a normal family life beyond the bright lights of Hollywood.

In 1954, she and her husband, actor Brooks West, moved their family to a ranch in Thousand Oaks, Calif., then a small town. “Her number one most important thing in life was to make her family happy,” daughter Liza West tells Closer.