Archives West Finding Aid

Margaret Ruth Draper (1916-2011) was born on November 20, 1916, in Spanish Fork, Utah to Mary Rogers and Delbert M. Draper. She attended and graduated from East High School and the University of Utah. The family moved to Salt Lake City when Draper was a child. She attended East High School, where she began acting; she continued her participation in theater at the University of Utah. After her graduation from college, Draper moved to New York where she worked as an actress in theatre, radio, and television during 1940s-1950s. Between 1943-1946, Draper served in the American Red Cross in the Middle East and Germany. In 1949, Margaret married Joe DeSantis, with whom she had her son, Christopher Desantis in 1951. They later divorced in 1957. In 1959, Draper married Niccol Bissel; they divorced in 1960. In 1972, Draper married J. Norman Messer; they divorced in 1973. In 1997, she was married to Wesley Brown until his death in 2001.

When Draper returned to New York, some of her more prominent acting roles included playing Liz Dennis in The Brighter Day from 1949-1954 and Linda Pepper in Pepper's Young Family in 1954. Draper worked for several theatres and theatre companies including the Chekhov Players, Corning Theatre, and Barter Theatre. During the 1960s, she worked as an actor and model in commercials and advertisements. In 1966, Draper became a disc jockey for the all-women FM radio station WNEW-FM. From 1969-1979, she worked for the United Seamen's Service until she moved to Washington where she worked for the National Alliance of Business Private Sector Initiative Program (PSIP) Clearinghouse in the early 1980s. Draper retired in 1985. Following her marriage to Wesley Brown in 1997, Draper traveled before returning to live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Margaret R. Draper died October 14, 2011.