Olive Stokes Mix (April 10, 1887 – November 1, 1972) was an American actress.

Olive Stokes Mix
A woman with fair skin, wearing a dark cloche hat low over her forehead
Olive Stokes Mix, from a 1928 newspaper
Born
Olive Stokes

April 10, 1887
Indian Territory, United States
DiedNovember 1, 1972 (aged 85)
Los Angeles, California, US
Spouse
(m. 1909; div. 1917)
ChildrenRuth Mix

Early life

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Release flier for The Cowboy's Best Girl (1912), with Olive Mix in the cast

Olive M. Stokes was born in Indian Territory, the daughter of James Henry Stokes (1861–1904)[1] and Georgia Ann Russell (1868–1939),[2] later known as Georgia Brown.[3] Her parents ran a ranch near Dewey, Oklahoma. Her mother was a Cherokee Nation citizen,[4] Olive Stokes was enrolled on the Dawes Rolls as 1/8th "Cherokee by blood", and her father is listed as an "intermarried white" whose enrollment was refused because his marriage took place prior to November 1, 1875. She graduated from Ward-Belmont College in 1907.[4][5]

Career

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As a young woman, Olive Stokes helped run her family's ranch and her mother's boarding house for oil workers.[2] Mix's screen credits were mostly in Western short films, and included roles in Dad's Girls (1911), Told in Colorado (1911), Why the Sheriff Is a Bachelor (1911), A Cowboy's Best Girl (1912), The Scapegoat (1912), The Diamond S Ranch (1912), Saved from the Vigilantes (1913), and The Single Code [it] (1917).[6]

 
Release flier for The Scapegoat (1922), with Olive Mix in the cast

In her later years, Mix wrote The Fabulous Tom Mix (1957), a biography of her late ex-husband.[7][8] and invested in oil wells[9] and mines, including a uranium mine in Utah.[4] In 1962 she was interviewed in the CBC Radio program The Unreal West.[10][11]

Personal life

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Olive Stokes married western film star Tom Mix in 1909; she was his third wife (or second, by his count).[12] They divorced in 1917.[13][14] They had a daughter, Ruth Mix (1912–1977),[15] who also acted in Westerns.[4][16] Olive Stokes Mix died in 1972, aged 85 years, in Los Angeles. Her grandson Hick Hill was an actor in 1960 Westerns.

References

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  1. ^ "Movie Actor Called Cruel". The Spokesman-Review. 1916-09-23. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b Droege, Emily (June 7, 2017). "Stokes Cemetery one of the oldest in Washington County". Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  3. ^ "Pioneer Woman Died Saturday Afternoon". Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. 1938-04-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c d Bynum, Kay (1955-12-29). "Ex-Wife of Tom Mix Visits Daughter Here". The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. p. 15. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Olive Stokes Mix is Lost College Chum". Clarion-Ledger. 1931-01-10. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "'The Single Code' New Horsley Subject". The Moving Picture World. 31: 2134. March 31, 1917.
  7. ^ Olive Stokes Mix (1957). The Fabulous Tom Mix. Media History Digital Library. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall.
  8. ^ "Books Noted in Passing". The Charlotte News. 1957-09-28. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Olive Stokes Mix Visiting Old Friends". Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. 1937-10-19. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and His Films. University of California Press. p. 546. ISBN 978-0-520-06334-1.
  11. ^ "Radio Reviews". Variety. 227: 86. July 25, 1962 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ "Crowd Cheers Tom Mix talks in Adams Court". The Greenwood Commonwealth. 1931-01-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Mix, Thomas Edwin". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  14. ^ "Mix Fights Giving Fund to Ex-Wife". The Los Angeles Times. 1928-02-03. p. 28. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Mixs' Have Big Day in Court as Row Over Daughter's $1500 Month is Heard". Los Angeles Evening Express. 1928-02-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Ruth Mix Weds Bronco Buster". Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. 1935-06-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-01 – via Newspapers.com.
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