'Beaver' mother a stay-at-home mom herself after series ended

Published: 2003-12-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Barbara Billingsley, a television icon after having starred as pearls-wearing homemaker June Cleaver for six seasons on "Leave It to Beaver," is not only a real-life mother, but a grandmother 16 times over and great-grandmother 22 times over. "They're not all mine. I had only two children. The rest are my stepchildren" from her marriage to widower William Mortensen, a Catholic physician, Billingsley said. Billingsley, who turns 81 on Dec. 22, makes a small-screen return in the film "Secret Santa," which airs 9-11 p.m. EST on NBC Sunday, Dec. 14. In the movie, she plays a retirement home resident who helps a frazzled reporter (Jennie Garth) better understand the giving spirit of Christmas. After "Beaver" went off the air in 1963, Billingsley became a stay-at-home mom, she told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from her home in Santa Monica, Calif. Any typecasting that might have resulted from having portrayed such a definitive character as June Cleaver faded away. "I had worked steadily. I was very happy to stay home, and be with my children," she said.

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