Kim Winona

Kim Winona was enrolled as Constance M. Marlow in the Santee Sioux tribe of Nebraska and spent her childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When she was 17, she and her parents moved to Spokane, Wash. where she met her husband who was also of Indian extraction. At this time she had no theatrical aspirations. Soon after her marriage they moved to Los Angeles. Harvey was a printer by trade and established his own business. Kim took a secretarial job in the office of a commercial artist. The firm in which she was employed had many artists and photographers, many of whom noticed Kim and her unusual natural beauty. Soon after, Kim was supplementing her income as a model. A talent scout spotted one of her pictures, interviewed her, and shortly had a screen test for a role in The Last Hunt (1956). She lost the part to a better known actress but was soon named "Miss Apache", and toured the U.S. to promote the film. In June of 1955 Roy rogers' Frontier Productions was looking for someone to play the tribal maiden Morning Star in the Brave Eagle (1955) series. Mike North, the executive producer was having trouble finding someone with the unique requirements that they needed for the role of Morning Star which called for riding ability, physical stamina to meet the active pace of location shooting, and a player with more than a token knowledge of Indian lore. Kim filled all those perfectly. Kim was also an accomplished painter and sculptress. One sculpture, in wood, on display at the Carnegie Institute. Kim's husband's grandmother was a Custer.