June 15, 2026
Introduction: In this sixth and final part of a six-part series, James Pylant tells the saga of the Billingsley family in America, a tale involving genealogy, crime and Hollywood. James is an editor at GenealogyMagazine.com and author for JacobusBooks.com, is an award-winning historical true-crime writer, and authorized celebrity biographer.
Here is the sixth and final article in this series about the Billingsley family. Touching on genealogy, crime, and celebrity, it traces the family connections from Barbara Billingsley of Leave It to Beaver to Peter Billingsley of A Christmas Story, as well as to the owner of the famous Stork Club.
In January 1920, Glenn Young – four months shy of his 16th birthday – lived with his parents in Lexington, Kentucky, where the family had moved from Louisville and, before that, from Glenn’s native Oklahoma. However, in 1921, the family relocated to Wichita, Kansas. There, Glenn took a job at an art shop, and in April 1922, he became engaged to 17-year-old Iva Beaver, who worked at a local theater. (1) Changing jobs, Glenn drew a $30-a-week salary as a Kansas Gas & Electric Company clerk. (2)
Glenn’s mother gave the couple her blessing, but she advised her son to change his last name to that of his long-lost father, Logan Billingsley. Glenn had been ten years old when Chloe Billingsley married James E. Young in Topeka, Kansas. (3)
Not long after his mother’s advice, Glenn came across a New York Times story about a group of Empire State businessmen constructing the largest apartment complex ever built in New York City. One of these entrepreneurs had the same name as his father: Logan Billingsley.
Wondering if this man was his father, Glenn sent him a letter and received a telegram confirmation. “Come at once!” his father beckoned.
And so, Glenn left Kansas behind and headed for a new life in New York City – as fast as a train could take him there. Iva soon joined him.
“I am glad for Glenn,” his mother said. “Money doesn’t mean anything to me; I only want the love which I have found. But Glenn needs the many advantages his father can give him.” (4)
In Gotham, Glenn enrolled at Columbia University to study architecture. Plunged into a wealthy, exclusive social whirl, Iva quickly adapted to a lifestyle she called “almost maddening but it’s thrilling.” (5) But two years later, Iva Billingsley was back in Kansas, without Glenn, boarding at her mother’s Wichita home. (6)
Glenn remarried on 23 November 1932 to Gladys Krasner in the Bronx. This wedding announcement misspelled the bride’s name.
Glenn Billingsley, 35, restaurant manager, and wife Gladys, 34, and five-year-old son Glenn Jr. lived in Westchester County, New York, as shown on the 1940 federal census. Glenn turned 36 in May, but he changed his birth year to 1908 when registering for the World War II draft. He also changed wives that year, divorcing Gladys in Florida. (7) On October 14, the Key West Citizen announced:
Glenn Billingsley, 32, owner of the Key West Stork Club, and Barbara Combes, 24, of this city, were married late Friday.
Meanwhile, Uncle Sherman Billingsley in New York was unhappy that nephew Glenn encroached on his territory by opening his own Florida version of the Stork Club. When Sherman asked friend Ernest Hemingway if he could recommend legal counsel in the matter, the famous author replied, “I’ll be your lawyer.” Hemingway called Sherman back about an hour later and said, “The Key West Stork Club has changed its name to Billingsley’s Cooked Goose.” Hemingway’s intervention made headlines. (The final name of the Florida club was the “White Heron.”)
The uncle and nephew’s feud continued when Glenn wanted to use the Billingsley name for a Hollywood café. “I can’t help it if my father is your brother,” Glenn told his uncle.
Glenn’s third bride, Los Angeles native Barbara Lillian Combes, was born on 22 December 1915. She worked as a model for a wholesale dress studio in New York City shortly before becoming Glenn’s bride. The couple moved to California, where the third Mrs. Billingsley pursued an acting career under her married name. “Barbara was thrilled about her first movie role – a bit part with Clark Gable in ‘This Strange Adventure,’” reported the Los Angeles Herald on 25 May 1945.
Barbara Billingsley’s best-known role, as June Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver, wouldn’t come until 1957. By then, the Billingsley marriage was long over, Barbara having secured a default divorce from her “absentee” husband on Valentine’s Day 1947. She raised their two sons, Drew and Glenn A. (the latter is not to be confused with his same-named half-brother).
Meanwhile, Glenn again remarried and altered his age. His new birth year, 1912, as appearing in Social Security records, made him a nine-year-old at his engagement to first wife Iva. In 1950, Glenn was listed as 37 – rather than 45 – in the 1950 federal census with 25-year-old wife Lynn, the former Doris Lynell Shaw. They had one son, Christopher Billingsley.
By 1961, Glenn owned a dozen restaurants in California, including the famed Golden Bull eateries, drawing praise from a Los Angeles newspaper.
Glenn Billingsley died on 5 February 1984 in Riverside, California; funeral services were private. His former wife, actress Barbara Billingsley, died on 16 October 2010. She was 94.
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Note on the header image: old photos and correspondence. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
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(1) “Betrothal Announced This Evening,” Wichita [Kan.] Beacon, 17 April 1922, p. 6.
(2) “Wichita Girl’s Dream of Sudden Wealth Comes True,” Wichita Eagle, 2 September 1923, p. 8A.
(3) “Marriage Licenses,” Topeka [Kan.] Daily Capital, 23 September 1914, p. 6.
(4) “Wichita Clerk Becomes Wealthy Man Over Night,” Wichita Eagle, 2 May 1923, p. 1.
(5) “New York Has Stamped Its Claim on a Wichita Girl,” Wichita Eagle, 27 August 1923, p. 5.
(6) Wichita City Directory, 1925 (Wichita, Kan: R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1925), p. 130.
(7) Glenn Billingsley, no. 8651 (1940), “Florida, U.S., Divorce Index, 1927-2001,” online database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 14 February 2025).
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