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Laura Shelton
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Laura Shelton (1935-2008) aka Carol Monson (born Carol Jean Ready on September 5, 1935 in Eastland, Texas) was a frequent guest star on several popular 1960s television series including “Wagon Train,” “Harrigan and Son,” “The Detectives” starring Robert Taylor, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “My Favorite Martian,” “Have Gun, Will Travel” and “Death Valley Days.” Life and Career Ms. Shelton was born to Beth Allene Judkins and Mack Ready, and was adopted by Hubert Haskell Shelton as a small child shortly after her mother remarried. Raised primarily in El Paso, Texas, she graduated from Austin High School in 1953. Ms. Shelton was married briefly to classmate Frank Grimmer while attending Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso). After divorcing and winning a contest to appear on a television game show, Ms. Shelton was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse’s school of theatre, known as the Hollywood “Star Factory,” where her contemporaries included Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and Rue McClanahan. While there, she met and later married actor/director Carl J. Monson in 1961. In 1964, with Carl, she founded the Curtain Call Theater in North Hollywood, a critically acclaimed invitational playhouse run by professional actors on a cooperative basis. In addition to working in the theater throughout the 1960s, Ms. Shelton focused on her television career as Laura Shelton and her two children, Clay Monson born 1964, and Cristen Monson Susong born 1969. Her last stage appearance was as Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music starring Oscar-nominated Anne Blyth for Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars in 1969. After her second marriage ended in 1972, Ms. Shelton moved from California back to El Paso to provide a home for her children. She retired from State National Bank in 2000 after twenty-five years in the banking industry in El Paso, TX. Selected TV Work Death Valley Days * There Was Another Dalton Brother (1964), Emmy Johnson * The Red Petticoat (1961) My Favorite Martian * The matchmakers (1963), Marsha Carson The Beverly Hillbillies * Jed Becomes a Banker (1963) Secretary FBI Code 98 (Feature Film 1963), Anita Davidson The Detectives, Starring Robert Taylor * The Queen of Craven Point (1961), Nancy * Personal Enemy (1961), Darlene Miami Undercover * The Baby Sitter (1961), Mona Harrigan and Son * The Case of the Missing Case (1961), Fern Williams Wagon Train * The Luke Grant Story (1960), Chris 
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