James Garner and daughter Gigi.
James Garner’s upbringing was remarkably hellish.
James Bumgarner (the actor’s original name) was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma. His mother died when he was four, and Jim later came to believe his Mom’s death was caused by a botched abortion.
For a time, his alcoholic father Weldon Bumgarner raised James and his two older brothers alone. Beatings became regular occurrences; Jim and his siblings were finally split up to live with relatives, since the old man could no longer cope with chasing down low-paying jobs while raising three young kids.
But life got worse.
As James turned nine, the family was reunited when Weldon Bumgarner married a redheaded witch named Wilma. She intensified the corporal punishment Jim’s father had initiated years before, and beat all three of Weldon’s sons. But since young Jim was the smallest, he got the worst of it. And he remembered that she added a special punishment to the beatings …
‘Whenever I did anything wrong, she’d put me in a dress and make everyone call me “Louise”,’
This went on for years. However, Garner grew, and grew some more. And when he was fourteen, he knocked Wilma down as she came after him for the latest round of thrashings, and started strangling her. Family members managed to pull him off of her, whereupon she beat him in the customary way.
Soon after, Wilma left the house and divorced Weldon. Jim Bumgarner never saw her again.
Postscript: seventeen years later, when James Garner was a TV and movie star, he returned to Norman, Oklahoma for “Jim Garner Day”. He was tipped off that Wilma might shoot him as he rode down the street in an open car, but he rode down the street anyway. No shots were fired.
James after he’d grown too large for Wilma to thrash.
Addendum: How tough was Jim Garner? Tough enough to defeat Batman.
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