Martina May Martin

Who was Martina May Martin?

Martina May Martin was an American stage actress who starred in various theatrical productions around the country during the 1920s and 1930s.

At one point in her career, she toured with the famous silent movie star, Carlyle Blackwell, who was doing theater work after talkies came into vogue, effectively ending his film career. One of the plays in which she co-starred with Blackwell was Lady Friends. It originally opened on Broadway in 1919 at the Comedy Theatre, and she had the role of Catherine in a later touring production. Another play in which she starred was Blind Alley. She toured the country with this play which had previously opened on Broadway in 1935 at the Booth Theatre.

Martina married her high school sweetheart, the actor Edward Pawley, in 1922 when they were fledgling theater performers in New York City. They both grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and attended Manual Training High School where they studied drama and acted in school plays. They had one child, a son named Martin Herbert Pawley, and they later divorced, only to remarry again and divorce a second time.

After Martina's acting career ended with the advent of World War II, she began a new career with the Lockheed Corporation in California. In 1963, she retired from Lockheed where she had been involved with wiring panels for airplanes.