Editing Irene Dunne (section)

==Early life==
Irene Marie Dunn was born on December 20, 1898,{{r|birth1|birth2}} at 507 East Gray Street in [[Louisville, Kentucky]],{{sfnp|Bochenek|2015}} to Joseph John Dunn, an Irish-American [[steamboat]] engineer and inspector for the United States government,{{sfnp|Gehring|2003|p=7}} and Adelaide Antoinette Dunn (née Henry), a concert pianist and music teacher of German descent from [[Newport, Kentucky]].{{sfnmp|Ward|2006|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929|2loc=Early Childhood}} She was their second child and second daughter,{{sfnp|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929}} and had a younger brother named Charles;<ref>{{cite news |title=Death Notices |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53477734/ |work=Los Angeles Times |date=1981-08-17 |page=18 |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-date=September 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914175458/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53477734/obituary-for-charles-r-dunne/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Charles Robert Dunne |journal=California Death Index, 1940-1997 |publisher=[[California Department of Public Health]]}}</ref> Dunne's elder sister died soon after her birth.{{sfnp|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929}} The family alternated between living in Kentucky and [[St. Louis]]{{sfnp|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929}} due to her father's job offers. He died in April 1913<ref>{{cite news |title=Capt. J.J. Dunn |work=Madison Daily Herald |date=April 7, 1913}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Joseph J. Dunn is Dead|work=[[St. Louis Globe-Democrat]]|date=April 7, 1913|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53367728/joesph-j-dunn-is-dead/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=June 13, 2020|archive-date=June 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613192744/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53367728/joesph-j-dunn-is-dead/|url-status=live}}</ref> from a kidney infection{{sfnp|Gehring|2003|page=8}} when she was fourteen.{{refn|group=Note|Joseph Dunn's death has also been reported as happening in 1909 when Dunne was eleven,{{sfnmp|Gehring|2003|1p=11|''Hats, Hunches & Happiness'' by Irene Dunne|1945}}<ref name="fristoe"/> but this was most likely at the time when Dunne was trying to conceal her real age from the Hollywood media.}} She saved all of his letters and remembered, indeed lived by, what he told her the night before he died: "Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life's great stores."{{refn|group=Note|The full quote: "Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life's great stores. So don't reach out wildly for this and that and the other thing. You'll end up empty-handed if you do. Make up your mind what you want. Go after it. And be prepared to pay well for it.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=To Make You Happier|magazine=[[Photoplay]]|issue=April 1944|page=107|first=Roberta |last=Ormiston}}</ref> I hope that you'll go after the rooted things: the self-respect that comes when we accept our share of responsibility. Satisfying work. Marriage. A home. A family. For these are the things that grow better with time, not less. These things are the bulwarks of happiness."{{sfnp|''Hats, Hunches & Happiness'' by Irene Dunne|1945}} Dunne only quoted the last three sentences to ''American Magazine'' in 1944.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=American Magazine|title=Lady Irene|page=117|issue=November 1944|author=Jerome Beatty}}</ref>}}{{sfnp|''Hats, Hunches & Happiness'' by Irene Dunne|1945}}

Following her father's death, Dunne's family moved to her mother's hometown of [[Madison, Indiana]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Mother of Irene Dunne was Madison Resident |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63671503/ |work=The Indianapolis Star |date=1936-12-19 |page=25}}</ref> living on W. Second St.,{{sfnp|Ward|2006}} in the same neighborhood as Dunne's grandparents.{{sfnmp|Gehring|2003|1p=11|Bochenek|2015}} Dunne's mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl — according to Dunne, "Music was as natural as breathing in our house,"{{sfnp|''Hats, Hunches & Happiness'' by Irene Dunne|1945}} — but unfortunately for her, music lessons frequently prevented her from playing with the neighborhood kids.{{sfnp|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929}} Her first school production of ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' began her interest in drama,{{sfnp|Gehring|2003|page=11}} so she took singing lessons as well, and sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.{{sfnp|Gehring|2003|page=13}} Wanting to become a music teacher,<ref name="teacher">{{Cite news|date=1945-06-11|title=Alma Mater to Give Irene Dunne Degree|work=The Central New Jersey Home News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/321303065|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|quote=Irene Dunne, who once wanted to teach music but who bypassed that vocation to become a starring actress in motion pictures, will be awarded an honorary degree of [[doctor of music]] by the Chicago Musical College.|access-date=August 28, 2020|archive-date=September 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914175451/https://www.newspapers.com/image/321303065/|url-status=live}}</ref> she studied at the [[University of Indianapolis|Indianapolis Conservatory of Music]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Irene Dunne, Ziegfeld Show Star, Looks Fondly Back to Madison Home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5127322/ |work=The Indianapolis Star |date=March 9, 1930 |page=38}}</ref>{{sfnp|Ward|2006}} earning a diploma in 1918. Later, she auditioned for the [[Chicago Musical College]] when she visited friends during a journey to [[Gary, Indiana]], and won a college scholarship, officially graduating in 1926.{{sfnmp|Pre-Hollywood Years|1898–1929|Gehring|2003|2p=14–15}} Hoping to become a [[soprano]] opera singer, she moved to New York after finishing her second year in 1920, but failed two auditions with the [[Metropolitan Opera Company]] due to her inexperience and her "slight" voice.<ref name="Bawden"/>{{sfnp|Gehring|2003|page=15}}