Remembering one of Hollywood’s golden girls

I wish I had had a chance to get to know film costumer and designer Angela Alexander.
Her nephew, producer-director-editor Nicholas Eliopoulos, sent me a note about her death today. The woman known locally as Angela Giokaris Alexander Jefferies lived in the Coachella Valley for more than 25 years. She was a loyal Desert Sun reader, Eliopoulos said, for more than 23 years.
Angela got to know Marilyn Monroe after doing three movies with her in 1952: “I’m Not Married,” “Don’t Bother to Knock” and “Monkey Business.”
One night, she told Eliopoulos, Marilyn was upset that she had to go out on a blind date. Angela asked who it was with and Marilyn replied, “Oh he’s just some ball player.”
It turned out the ball player was Yankees great Joe DiMaggio, who went on to marry her.
Angela married fellow men’s costumer Wes Jefferies just before they began work on the Frank Sinatra movie, “Sergeants 3.” When Sinatra discovered they went to work on his movie instead of going on a honeymoon, he sent them to Greece on his private plane after the production wrapped and picked up all of the expenses for a memorable honeymoon.
Then he hired them for his next movie, “The Manchurian Candidate.”
Angela was apparently a treasure trove of old show biz stories. She lived to age 94. A memorial service is being planned in her native Kansas City this week.
I’m sorry I never met her.