Calling All Marshas: 102-Year-Old Marsha Hunt Wants To Hear From You

If your name is Marsha, there’s a good chance you were named after Marsha Hunt who turned 102 in October.

- Nick Thomas

Whether you're named directly or indirectly after the veteran actress probably depends on your age, but nonetheless, Ms. Hunt believes she holds claim to being the first girl named Marsha – at least with that spelling.

As a teenager in New York in the 1930s, she accompanied her mother to the cinema one day to see “No More Ladies” starring Joan Crawford whose film character was named Marcia. During the movie, Mrs. Hunt whispered to her daughter, “That’s your name.” This was a surprise to the teen since she had always been called Betty!

Hunt related this story to Roger C. Memos, writer, director, and producer of the 2015 documentary on Hunt’s life “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity” and to me when I interviewed her in 2014. As Hunt recalls, when the pair exited the theater, she asked for more information from her mother who revealed that as a newborn, the baby had indeed been originally named Marcia. But a persuasive family member had been concerned that with a sister named Marjorie it could be confusing for siblings to grow up with such similar names.