Did Edna Gladney really have a "sister" who was a "fondling"?

Question

Did Edna's sister kill herself when they were supposed to have a double wedding? I saw the movie, "Blossoms in the Dust" and according to that story, if I remember correctly, when her fiancee's family found out she was a "fondling" they called off the wedding. Then Edna's "sister" killed herself.

Answer 1

I had heard that too. I don't know how true it is though. According to one of b*****d Nation's prolific executive chair, she didn't.

This is what Marley Greiner wrote:

Sentimental History:

One of the most influential pro-adoption films made in this era is multi-Academy Award nominated Blossoms in the Dust (1941), a  pseudo-historical and sentimental look at child welfare and adoption.  Blossoms possesses none of the social realism or grittiness of the contemporaneous Dead End, Boys Town and They Made Me A Criminal, nor the patriotic feminism of the Fallen Women films.  Starring Greer Garson as Edna Gladney, the film is based on the life of the Gladney adoption agency's founder.  The script, while strong, had little to do with Edna Gladney’s “real” life and the film falls somewhere between that era's great film biopics of Louis Pasteur, Lady Hamilton and Benito Juarez, and the fictionalized Cole Porter bio  Night and Day.   Since no serious historical study has been done on Edna Gladney, it is somewhat difficult to separate truth from fiction in this film.  We do know that, unlike the film, Gladney had no foster sister who committed suicide on the eve of her wedding upon learning that she was a "foundling." Nor did she look like Greer Garson or wear Jean Louis gowns.  We do know, however, that Gladney was indeed a pioneer of modern adoption practice in Texas and was instrumental in destigmatizing b******s and adopted children by getting the word “illegitimate” removed from Texas birth certificates. This accomplishment however, is presented in a vacuum, when in fact, similar campaigns had been waged for years by social work professionals in other states.  Garson's rousing film speech, based on Gladney's actual speech to the Texas Legislature in which she declares, "there is no such thing as illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents", stirs the b*****d heart so strongly, that it is possible for a moment  to forget that Gladney turned around and re-stigmatized adoptees as adults through her advocacy of secret adoption and sealed records.

Blossoms in the Dust influenced a generation of couples to adopt.  It made people think about the stigma of illegitimacy, and even quite possibly helped create the culture that allowed records to be sealed.