Richard Widmark’s high school graduation party was like any other with lots of ‘”You’ll do great in college Dick,” “Best of luck at Arizona, Richard,” “Remember that double date with ...” and every other thing that one hears at these celebrations of the rite of passage from one level of learning to the next.

It was a great time with his family and good friends. It was not so great on the road trip after high school when he got the wire from his father saying, “Come home. You can’t go to the school.” His father didn’t have the money to give him, and Widmark didn’t have anywhere near enough to even get started.

“I had just had a farewell party, and I didn’t want to tell my friends. I broke out with shingles. I was a nervous wreck.”

The full scholarship he got to Lake Forest College was manna from heaven. It put him back on the path and back in the game. He would excel at almost everything at Lake Forest. He would find his true calling in life, and the woman to share it with.

Ora (Orajosa) Jean Hazlewood was the daughter of Craig B. and Estella (Neighbors) Hazlewood. Craig was the son of Clarence and Ora B. Hazlewood, and had one brother Paul.  He was born in East Aurora, N.Y., in 1883, and his family later moved to the Chicago area. Ora Jean’s mother, Estella, was the daughter of Eugene and Alice (Thornberry) Neighbors. Eugene and Alice were married in 1874, and Estella (everyone called her Stella) Neighbors was born in St. Louis, Ill., in 1883. She had two younger sisters, Winifred I. and Florence A. Neighbors. Eugene Neighbors and his family were living in Chicago by 1910.

Craig B. Hazlewood met Stella Neighbors, and they were married in 1912. Ora Jean Hazlewood was born Aug. 4, 1916, and everyone called her Jean. Ora Jean was named after her paternal grandmother. She had a sister, Dorothy A., born in 1914, and a brother Craig B. Hazlewood Jr., born in 1918. Jean’s father, Craig, was a banker of much prominence in the Chicago area. He was a graduate of the Lewis Institute and the University of Chicago who had his early training in the banking business with the Commercial National Bank in 1904. He started as advertising manager with the Union Trust Co. of Chicago in 1908 and worked through various important positions, eventually becoming the vice president in 1917. He was a pioneer and leader in the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Banking, a member of the executive council from Illinois and chairmen of the State Legislative Committee. He became the vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago, when the Union Trust Co. merged with the First National Bank in 1929. He was the president of the American Bankers Association and the Association of Reserve City Bankers. The family moved several times in the Chicago area, living in Chicago, Wilmette and Evanston. The Hazlewood family was prominent in Chicago and employed from one to two servants at different times. The Hazlewood children would have none of the worries of Richard Widmark when it came to affording or going to college.

The Hazlewood family was living at 16 Canterbury Court in Wilmette, New Trier Township, Ill., when Ora Jean graduated from New Trier Township High School in May of 1934. Their home was large and very stately with 14 rooms plus six baths. Jean had been very active during her high school years with various extracurricular activities. She was called “Jeanie” in high school, was a member of the Wilmelie Social Commillee Girls’ Club, the French Club, and enjoyed photography as a member of the Lens Club in her junior and senior years. She joined The Charm School organization at New Trier and even played girls’ baseball. She had a well-rounded education in high school and planned on attending Northwestern University after graduation. Ora Jean changed her plans during the summer of 1934.

Ora Jean decided on Lake Forest College to continue her education after graduating high school. It was August of 1934; the college was close to her home; and it had a smaller school enrollment. Joining a sorority was part of the college life for freshmen women. When sororities were founded in the mid 1800s, college campuses were dominated by men. Female students felt isolated, not just because male students outnumbered them, but because this was a time when women were largely considered unsuited to higher education. Sororities began as a way for women to find intellectual and social companionship with one another during the college experience.

The first such sorority was in Macon, Ga., in 1851. It was the first secret society for college women, the Adelphean Society or later on called Alpha Delta Pi. Potential new members, commonly known as “rushees,” had to go through a recruitment process, traditionally know as “rush.” Recruitment differed depending on the college campus, and at smaller universities or colleges, the events could be of a less formal nature. This recruitment process into a campus sorority, for Ora Jean Hazlewood, started her on a path that would cross with the path of another student, Richard Widmark, and forever entwine them for the rest of their lives. The sorority was the Gamma Rho Delta sorority at Lake Forest College, and it consisted of 30 young ladies or about 10 percent of the college population.

“I am probably the only woman in Hollywood who married her teacher, and I never carried a red apple in my life,” said Jean Widmark in a January 1949 interview in Silver Screen magazine. In future interviews and articles on her famous husband, she had a lot to say about their college romance and his early career.

“I met Dick on a blind date when I was being rushed by a sorority (Gamma Rho Delta) at Lake Forest College, in Lake Forest, Ill. Dick was a football hero and a big shot on campus. A member of the sorority arranged the date hoping I’d be impressed. I was a freshman, and he was at junior. The meeting, I should explain, was a put up job. The gals in the sorority wanted to get me the most attractive date on campus for a certain barn dance. Another girl and I were in the Commons one day, discussing the problem, when Dick walked by. He, like the rest of the football team, was waiting tables. He looked very nice. So when the other girl said, ‘How would you like that one as your date?’ I nodded emphatically. I was impressed and joined the sorority that had provided such a desirable escort. How they persuaded him, I don’t know, but that night we whooped it up in the best barn dance traditions.

“Dick and I dated every night for two weeks, going to movies and parties. I assumed he was falling for me, as I was for him. Dick was the prom king that year, and naturally, the famous sorority wanted the queen to be someone from its group. When the sorority sister mentioned this, I waved a complacent hand. ‘Don’t worry,’ I remarked, sure of myself, after a fortnight of dating, ‘I’m a cinch!’ Then the bow fell. He stopped calling.”

I’ll be back with more of Richard Widmark and Jean Hazlewood and this old fashioned romantic tale in a couple of weeks.