Trivia

Fern Persons was an American film and television actress, and a member of the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists from 1937 until her death.

She was nominated for a 1981 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "The Gin Game" at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

She was nominated for a 1982 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Supporting Role for "Les Belles Souers" at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

She sat on SAG's Chicago Branch Council for 44 years and the AFTRA Chicago Local Board for more than thirty years.

Persons served on the national board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1976-98.

Persons joined Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1937 and became the fifth member of the SAG Chicago Branch when she joined in 1953.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in drama from Kalamazoo College in 1933.

Much of her work at SAG and AFTRA focused on improving the professional acting opportunities for older actors.

She her husband and a newborn daughter, moved to Chicago so Persons could pursue her acting career in the latter half of the 1930s.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts of acting from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now called Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

She was also awarded the Otto Kahn Prize for excellence in acting at Carnegie.

Fern Gwendolyn Ball was born in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan as a young girl with her family.

Once she graduated from Carnegie, Persons worked in Detroit in radio for a short period.

Ball met her future husband, Max Persons, while both were college students. They married in 1935.

She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from both colleges.

She served as a SAG Regional Branch Division representative on TV/Theatrical and Commercials negotiating committees throughout the 1980s and intermittently through the 1990s.

She also served more than thirty years on the AFTRA Chicago Local Board.

Fern Ball married Max Persons in October 1935 and remained married for thirty-six years until his death in November 1971.

She was elected to the Chicago Branch Council in 1962 and served for forty-four years until 2006, when she stepped down only because she could no longer drive.

Persons was elected to the SAG National Board in 1976, and served on that body until 1998. During that time, from 1977-81, she was elected SAG 5th national vice president.

She died in her sleep on July 22, 2012, five days before her 102nd birthday.

Persons donated $100,000 to Chicago's Kaufherr Members Resource Center endowment fund. In appreciation, the KMRC video suite was renamed The Fern Persons Video Suite.

Persons moved to Colorado in 2010 to be closer to her daughter.

On July 27, 1999, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley officially declared "Fern Persons Day" to mark her 89th birthday. The day honored her contributions to the Chicago arts and acting communities.

Persons was honored in 2006 with the AFTRA Founders Award and, in 2009, she was awarded SAG's prestigious Howard Keel Award.