The Ginger House and heavily involved in the theater, Ginger went on to become a Broadway star at the age of 19, and shortly after, a Hollywood film actress. She is perhaps best known for the nine films she made with Fred Astaire, but she was a huge star before they began working together and making dance films. Ginger visited her hometown several times during her lifetime. In 1942, she visited the home during an interview with LIFE magazine. In 1964, President Harry Truman declared July 16 to be "Ginger Roger's Day," Ginger again visited the home in 1972 when she was in
Ginger Rogers CBS radio. In 1941, Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1940's "Kitty Foyle". She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. In "Roxie Hart" (1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the later musical "Chicago", Rogers played a wisecracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neorealist "Primrose Path" (1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included "Tom, Dick, and