Schulenburg Cold Case Involving Child Actresses Getting New Life

A child actress who grew up in Schulenburg disappeared in 1963, and now her niece wants to find out what happened to her.

Lora Lee Michel was born in Schulenburg on Sept. 13, 1940. Her birth mother left her family, and her father put her up for adoption. Schulenburg cotton buyer Otto Michel adopted her. In the late 1940s, a dance troupe she was in performed before Texas Governor Beauford Halbert Jester during a Lions Club event in Schulenburg. Jester was so enamored with Lora Lee that he telegraphed Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood and advised them to screen test the girl.

By age 10, she had starred in films such as “The Snake Pit” (1948), “Mighty Joe Young” (1949) and “It’s a Small World” (1950). She shared the screen with Hollywood greats including Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper and Olivia de Havilland.

In 1950, scandal erupted when Lora Lee, possibly at the instigation of her acting coach and agent, accused her adoptive parents of abuse. Newspapers across the nation followed the story. A judge ruled in favor of the adoptive parents and advised them to move back to Texas and take Lora Lee out of the movies.

By age 15, both of Lora Lee’s adoptive parents had died. She married for the first time at age 17. In 1963, out of the movie business and married for the third time, Lora Lee and her husband got caught in a stolen vehicle in El Paso attempting to cross the state line. She found herself again under media spotlight in a courtroom. Following the sentence, her name disappears from the historic record.

If alive, she would be 80 years old today.

Lora Lee’s niece, Leslie Hannah of San Antonio, began looking into Lora Lee’s whereabouts a few years ago after her mother gave her a collection of old newspaper clippings.

“Our family knows all about Lora Lee’s success and her eventual fall from fame, but we want to learn what happened to her after everyone else stopped talking about her,” said Hannah.

Hannah’s mother, Lora Lee’s biological sister, never had much of a relationship with her famous sibling. They were separated by adoption but knew each other growing up. Following the scandal, Hannah said her mother’s adoptive parents forbade her from contact with Lora Lee.

Hannah is asking the public for help in locating her missing aunt. Hannah has launched an investigation that she hopes may turn into a documentary or podcast about this unusual story.

“Unlocking the questions that have surrounded our family for years would help bring us closure,” Hannah said. “We hope this project along with Old Hollywood fans and mystery buffs will help us uncover the rest of Lora Lee’s story and perhaps reconnect us with a beloved sister and aunt.”

Hannah said she particularly hopes someone in Schulenburg or Fayette County might have gone to school or been friends with Lora Lee.

Anyone with information can contact Hannah and learn more about Lora Lee’s story online by going to www.loraleemichel.com.

Look for more on this story in upcoming issues.