Kay Hughes

This "B"-level actress was one of the more wholesomely attractive, if minor, co-stars of westerns, crimers and serials of the late 30s. Her less-than-half-decade leading lady film career playing both vulnerable and resourceful ladies stretched just slightly into World War II territory. Kay was born Catherine Mary Rhoads in Los Angeles on January 16, 1914, and lived part of her childhood in her father's native Ohio. The child suffered a near fatal bout of pleurisy at the age of six which left her health extremely challenged. As a teenager she would be prone to sickness as well undergoing extensive rib surgery due to her severe infections. The family returned to California when she was 9. Kay's hopes of being a dancer were dashed due to her fragile health. Undeterred, she pursued modeling and acting roles and broke into film in feature-length dramas and musicals, including Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) (her debut: as a dancer), After the Dance (1935), George White's 1935 Scandals (1935), Fighting Youth (1935) and Strike Me Pink (1936) (as a Goldwyn Girl). Finally moving into small, featured roles in such secondary films as Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936), Every Saturday Night (1936) and Brides Are Like That (1936), Ruth was signed by Republic and immediately moved up to co-star status opposite Robert Livingston in the 12-part action adventure serial The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936) with Livingston playing a Zorro-like masked hero dubbed "The Eagle." Thereafter, Ruth moved up to "prairie flower" status in such westerns as The Three Mesquiteers (1936) and Ghost-Town Gold (1936), which reunited her with Livingston; and two westerns Ride, Ranger, Ride (1936) and The Big Show (1936) opposite Gene Autry. She eventually broke her contract with Republic and moved to Universal. Lovely Kay, who would occasionally be billed as Catherine Hughes in later years, appeared in the crimers The Mandarin Mystery (1936), A Man Betrayed (1936) and Trouble at Midnight (1937); co-starred in another popular serial Radio Patrol (1937) starring heroic Grant Withers as a radio cop out to bust a crime syndicate; and enjoyed her most popular role, if rather overlooked, as girlfriend Gwen Andrews in her final serial Dick Tracy (1937) starring Ralph Byrd as the clench-jawed master detective. In the 1940s her career took a decidedly secondary position following her marriage to an MGM still photographer and two children, the first born in 1940. She ended her career with a few "B" fare movies, including the westerns Riders of the Badlands (1941) starring Charles Starrett and Russell Hayden; Enemy of the Law (1945) starring Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien; and Fighting Bill Carson (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John. Divorced from her first husband in the mid 1940's, Kay would marry twice more (in 1947 and 1965) and would be twice widowed. She lived in the mid-West with husband #2 and Reno with husband #3. Living much of her later life in Desert Hot Springs, California, Kay underwent heart surgery in December of 1997, and died the following April at the age of 84.