(l-r) Jerry Maren, Karl Slover, Clarence Swenson, Margaret Pellegrini in October 1998. Photo by Alan C. Teeple

Actress Margaret Pellegrini died 7 August 2013, from complications from a stroke she suffered in 2012. Born Margaret Williams on 23 September 1923 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, she was the “Flowerpot Munchkin” in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her only other film role was an uncredited appearance in 1971’s Johnny Got His Gun. She was one of the last three surviving Munchkins.

She was working in a relative’s potato chip booth at the Tennessee State Fair when she was asked to join Henry Kramer’s Midgets show. “At that time I didn’t think I was a midget,” she later said. At the time, she was about 3 feet 4 inches tall, though she later grew to nearly 4 feet.

In later years, she lived in Glendale, Arizona, and was a regular guest at Wizard of Oz events and festivals.

After the film, she married Willie Pellegrini (an average-sized ex-fighter) and had two children.

Related articles previously published on SFScope:
Actor Karl Slover Dies (16 November 2011)
Munckin Meinhardt Raabe Dies (11 April 2010)
Entertainer Mickey Carroll Dies (11 May 2009)
Actor Clarence Swensen Dies (27 February 2009)
The Munchkins get a star in Hollywood (27 November 2007)