Another of the post World War II heroines, Penny Edwards made about two dozen films, initially working at Warners and Universal in the 1940s. She was under a term players contract at Republic Pictures from May, 1950 through October, 1951 - this simply meant that for security and a regular paycheck, Republic could utilize her as much as they wanted. At Republic, she did mostly westerns - six with Roy Rogers and one each with Rex Allen and Allan Lane.

Where did the nickname "Penny" come from? She was christened Millicent. Since her name ended in "cent", she got the nickname "Penny".

Several folks have asked if Penny Edwards was the mother of actress Debra Winger, and the answer is "no".  In 1951, Penny married Ralph Winters, a studio casting exec. They had two daughters, Rebecca and Deborah. Deborah Winters (not Winger) went on to do some movies and TV work. She and Ralph Winters divorced in 1958.

During the 1950s-early 1960s, Penny appeared in TV shows as well as television commercials. In December, 1964, she married Jerry Freidman and they had a son David. However, that marriage did not last.

In later years, she guested at several western film festivals. Penny passed away from lung cancer on August 26, 1998.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on:
Penny Edwards: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0250271/
Penny's daughter Deborah Winters: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0935922/

There's 1943-1946 credits for Penny at the Internet Broadway Database: http://ibdb.com/person.php?id=71033

Colin Briggs wrote a nice biography titled "Sweetheart of the West"on Penny for Classic Images: http://www.classicimages.com/articles/2007/11/19/past_articles/edwardspenny.prt

YouTube has an approximate three minute trailer from TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS (Warners, 1948) which starred Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone and Penny (who was billed fourth): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlkiGK2ycdY

There's some large photos of Penny at a genealogy website managed by Don Bova. Penny was Bova's wifes Aunt. Go to: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aliatotex/appendix15.html

The 225th AAA Searchlight Battalion website has a bunch of pinup photos of WW2 era Hollywood stars and starlets of both A and B grade films. Here's Penny Edwards: http://www.skylighters.org/photos/aug2003pu.html and http://www.skylighters.org/ggparade/pennyedwards1.jpg

Tom Vallance's obituary on Penny is at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980905/ai_n14166698

The Time magazine archive has an April, 1954 article which notes that "Penny Edwards, 25 (Pony Soldier, Powder River), announced her retirement from the commercial motion pictures to devote herself to full-time church work. Actress Edwards, wife of TV Director Ralph Winters, was baptized a Roman Catholic, will now become a Seventh-Day Adventist." The preceding paragraph in that article appears to have been garbled when Time did the scan of their original. Go to: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,823347,00.html

(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

(Courtesy of Ron Bates)

Above and below are images of Republic heroine Penny Edwards at the 1997 Lone Pine Film Festival saluting Republic Pictures. Thanks to Ron Bates for these photos. Ron recalls that he and Penny had a pleasant conversation and she autographed a photo of her signing, "Ron, I'll be your leading lady anytime" after Ron told her she was his favorite Roy Rogers costar.

(Courtesy of Ron Bates)