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Virginia Martin

American actress (1919–1971)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ7934398
Source-derived summary

Virginia Marie Martin (December 2, 1927 – August 27, 2009) was an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage and on television. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1963.

Early life

Martin was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the daughter of Tommy T. and Harville Martin. She had two brothers, Jere and Donald, and was a graduate of the University of Chattanooga in 1949. Her studies included ballet, musical theory, piano and voice. She sang with the Chattanooga Opera Association, was soprano soloist at Second Presbyterian Church, and was Miss Chattanooga 1949. She worked as entertainment manager at resort hotels in upstate New York and Florida for five summers. After she moved to New York City she worked as a fashion model and studied drama and voice at the American Theatre Wing.

Theatre

Martin made her Broadway debut during the original run of the musical South Pacific in the role of Ensign Bessie Noonan.

In 1954, Martin was in the chorus of the original Broadway cast for the musical The Pajama Game.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Virginia Martin” is american actress (1919–1971). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Virginia, Martin and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1927, 2009, 1963, 1949—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1919-06-17, 1927-12-02—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Virginia, Martin and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american actress (1919–1971)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7934398. VIAF identifies the subject as 27152682535323311027. The Library of Congress control number is n94091530. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2009, 1963 and 1949.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Virginia Martin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Virginia Martin primary sources, Virginia Martin archive and Virginia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Virginia Martin”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Virginia Martin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.