Local Legend, Dean Ira Jagger – “The General” from White Christmas
By Abigail Power
Dean Jeffries Jagger was born on November 7th 1903 in Columbus Grove, Ohio and in the 1920s, Jagger visited Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting in silent films. Silent films quickly went away to make room for the new “talkies”, but he eventually signed a contract with Paramount which gave him a big break with lots of films such as You Belong to Me (1934) with Lee Tracy, Home on the Range (1935), and Wings in the Dark (1935) with Cary Grant. He made his breakthrough role as Brigham Young in Brigham Young (1940) and later won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Major/Lt. Col. Harvey Stovall in Twelve O’Clock High (1949) with Gregory Peck. In 1954, he became known as one of the most beloved holiday characters in history portraying the beloved General Tom Waverly alongside Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. In the 1960s, Jagger starred in the show Mr. Novak and continued to act in television shows throughout the decades. Jagger’s third wife, Etta Mae Norton, was a longtime dancer and dance instructor in Modesto and though he passed away in 1991 in Santa Monica, both he and Etta are buried here at Lakewood Memorial Park in Hughson. If you are a fan of White Christmas, like the ViewCrew, celebrate Dean Ira Jagger by catching a showing of the holiday classic at the State Theatre, picking up a cup of coffee or cocoa downtown, and making the trip out to Lakewood to say “hello” and pay your respects to General Tom Waverly. “We’ll follow the old man wherever he wants to go…with the grandest son of a soldier of them all”
