Lora Lee Michel

Lora Lee Michel (born Virginia Joy Willeford, September 13, 1940) is an American former child actress. She appeared in several feature films during the Golden Age of Hollywood in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1950, she was the focus of a custody dispute in Beverly Hills, California, in which she alleged that her adoptive mother had beaten and starved her. She came to public attention again in 1963 when she and her third husband were sentenced in federal court for stealing a car and driving it across state lines. After her release from prison, she disappeared. It is believed she died from cancer in 1979.

Early life and family Michel was born in La Grange, Texas, on September 13, 1940, to Willie Walker Willeford and Lena Smith Brunson.

Career Michel was a successful child actress in the late 1940s. By the age of 9, she was earning $100 a day .

At the trial, a clergyman testified that Michel appeared to him to have been "terribly bruised", which the girl claimed was from physical punishment administered by Lorraine. He said he had seen Michel at the home of her drama coach and that she had "black and blue marks on her arms, shoulders, buttocks and legs." But the judge, who questioned Michel's veracity, ruled the adoption was legal and awarded custody to the Michels and told them to take her back to Texas so she could live a "normal life."

Later life Back in Texas, Michel was enrolled at Saint Agnes Academy in Houston and performed in some local theatrical productions.

On February 28, 1958, Michel married Donald Mayo Ford at the age of 17. Scott was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison while Michel was sentenced to 13 months at the Federal Women's Institution in Alderson, West Virginia.