Margaret Kerry

Margaret Kerry was born Margaret McCarty on May 11, 1929, in Springfield, Illinois, the daughter of John McCarty and Mary (Henderson) McCarty. After her mother died in childbirth and her father could not support five children, she and siblings were placed for adoption. Around age three she was adopted by Frederick Robb and Grace (Lynch) Robb, who moved her to Los Angeles and later had her name legally changed to Peggy Lynch. She began dance and film work as a small child, including a fairy role in Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and appearances in Our Gang shorts. She later remembered Depression-era Los Angeles auditions, trolley rides, and a casting directory culture in which young performers listed skills they sometimes had to invent on the spot.

Kerry graduated from Benjamin Franklin Senior High School with honors while working on If You Knew Susie. She later graduated cum laude from Los Angeles City College. She also trained as a dancer, including lessons associated with Nico Charisse, and built the pantomime and ballet vocabulary that shaped her Disney reference work.

As Peggy Lynch and then Margaret Kerry she worked as a child actor, dancer, camera double (including for Elizabeth Taylor on National Velvet), and featured player opposite Eddie Cantor in If You Knew Susie. Cantor coined her stage name. On television she was a regular as Sharon Ruggles on The Ruggles and later guest-starred on The Lone Ranger and The Andy Griffith Show. At Disney she auditioned for Marc Davis with a homemade pantomime routine and became the live-action reference model for Tinker Bell in Peter Pan (1953), also voicing the red-haired mermaid. She then became a prolific voice artist for Cambria Productions' Syncro-Vox cartoons. From 1992 to 2004 she produced and hosted Christian radio on KKLA-FM and directed community outreach. Late in life she published Tinker Bell Talks (2016), spoke about prosopagnosia, and remained a popular guest at Disney and Mayberry events into her mid-90s.

Kerry married Dick Brown in 1951; they had Ellen, Christina, and Eric and divorced in 1984. She married John H. Willcox in 1987; he died in 1999. In 2019 she reconnected with Robert Boeke, a USC-connected World War II veteran she had dated in the late 1940s, after he noticed a Tinker Bell Toys shop during European D-Day anniversary travel. They married on Valentine's Day 2020 in Studio City; Disney leaders celebrated the reunion publicly. Kerry spoke openly about prosopagnosia (face blindness) and about Christian faith. Boeke died May 24, 2026; Kerry died less than three weeks later.

Kerry's later public life was closely tied to Christian broadcasting and community service through KKLA-FM, where she hosted What's Up Weekly - Ministry Loves Company and connected listeners with nonprofit agencies. Family memorial messages emphasized her faith and readiness for what she framed as going home to God. She also used public talks and a self-published booklet to explain living with prosopagnosia, aiming to reduce stigma around face blindness. In Disney contexts she pushed back against the Marilyn Monroe origin myth for Tinker Bell, stressing her own filmed reference work and Marc Davis's direction that the fairy should be her.

Tinker Bell's on-screen personality, dancer's posture, and wordless expressiveness in the 1953 Peter Pan became Disney's enduring fairy mascot, opening Wonderful World of Disney telecasts and appearing across parks and branding. Kerry spent decades meeting fans, correcting myths, and mentoring appreciation for animation reference performance long before modern motion capture. Her autobiography, convention appearances, and late interviews kept the craft story of Marc Davis's sound-stage process alive for new generations. In 2023 the Walt Disney Family Museum displayed her original Tinker Bell ballet slippers during the studio centennial.

Disneyana Fan Club President's Award (2012) and Legends Award (February 15, 2020). Ward Kimball Award from Walt Disney's Carolwood Barn (February 16, 2020). On her 90th birthday in 2019 she received certificates from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; First Lady Melania Trump also sent a birthday card recognizing her place in American entertainment history. Her slippers' 2023 museum display further marked institutional recognition of her Peter Pan contribution.

Kerry is central to popular debates about who inspired Disney's Tinker Bell, often contrasted with Marilyn Monroe rumors she rejected. She appears throughout Disney fan media, podcasts, and documentaries about Peter Pan and animation reference models. Mayberry Days audiences also know her from The Andy Griffith Show guest roles. Robert Iger's 2020 Valentine's Day tweet about her marriage to Robert Boeke became a widely shared real-life Disney love-story moment. After her death, fan tributes at Disneyland's Peter Pan's Flight and memorial coverage revisited the Second Star to the Right motif from her family's statement.

Margaret Kerry died of lung cancer on June 11, 2026, in Wilmington, North Carolina, at age 97. Her children Ellen, Christina, and Eric were with her. Her husband Robert Boeke had died on May 24, 2026. The family announced her death on her Facebook page and through Tinker Bell's Gift Shop, asking that in lieu of flowers friends consider donations to Wilmington's Thalian Association Community Theater, and inviting admirers to look for the Second Star to the Right shining brighter in her honor. She had asked that a photo of her with Tinker Bell be shared when she passed.