Jessie Ralph was a well known actress who lived and died in Gloucester. She was well known as a character actress in several films you should recognize: David Copperfield (1935) and Camille (1936) among others. She retired after a leg was amputated and died a few years later in 1944. She is buried at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. I find it fascinating to think about her life span which started when she was born during the Civil War and died before the end of World War II. On a lark one day, I used the Sawyer Free Library online database for the Gloucester Daily Times and entered her name. Following you will find some example of articles written about her locally. Facebook also provides “10 Things You Should Know About Jessie Ralph” (honestly, you can find just about anything on Facebook it seems. )
Good Morning Gloucester 
I just happened to find your article after looking up Jessie Ralph on IMDB & other sites online after watching her very funny performance once again in “After the Thin Man”, where she plays Nora Charles’ snobby/haughty aunt who disapproves of Nick, of course! 😀 (always love the way she pronounces his name so haughtily: “Nick-o-LAS!” :D) The old newspaper clips that you found on her were fascinating, too; what a shame that such a talented actress like her had to retire too soon from the biz because of her leg being amputated! By the way, I’ve been trying to find out the specific medical reason that that had to be done– you don’t have any idea why she had to have it done, do you? I’m wondering if, since she was a bit heavy-set (no disrespect meant regarding weight, of course — I’m just trying to puzzle this out logically), if she might’ve had diabetes & the leg-amputation might’ve been due to some sort of health complications due to diabetes, maybe? Or I could be completely wrong, of course! Anyway, if you’ve never seen her amusing performance in “After the Thin Man”, I’d highly recommend it if you’re a fan of her work! 🙂
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Thank you for commenting. I do not know the reason for the amputation. She’s an interesting piece of Gloucester history.
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