HOUSTON -- Kay Gable, the fifth wife of Clark Gable, has died of a heart ailment in a Houston hospital following a lengthy illness. She was 65.
Mrs. Gable died late Wednesday at Methodist Hospital, where she had been for several weeks. The former actress had a home in Los Angeles, where her funeral is being planned for the weekend, a family spokesman said.
She is survived by her three children, son John Clark Gable, 22, who was the famous movie star's only son. Her two other children, Joan Spreckels, 32, and Adolph Spreckles, 34, were from her marriage to sugar heir Adolph Spreckels II.
Son John was born four months after his father's death.
Mrs. Gable never remarried after her 59-year-old husband died of a heart attack in 1960. She spent much of her time perpetuating his memory with a book about her life with the dashing actor, and answering a never-ending flow of fan mail.
She had a history of heart disease although she led an active life and enjoyed a full social schedule throughout her later years. She spent much of her time working for charitable organizations.
She married Gable in 1955 after a close relationship for 13 years. She was his fifth wife.
Born Kay William in Erie, Pa., in 1918 and raised on her parents' farm, the young blonde beauty became a model, moving to Hollywood in the 1940s where she was put under contract to MGM. She was billed on the screen as Kay Williams andappeared in a handful of pictures.
Following a first marriage that lasted only about a year, she married Argentine cattle millionaire Martin de Alzaga. She later married Spreckles, and after six stormy years with him, she married Gable. They spent five years together before his death.
