Clarence Swensen

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas - Clarence Swensen, who played a Munchkin soldier in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” has died. He was 91.

Mr. Swensen died Wednesday, a funeral home in Pflugerville confirmed. He had being in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2005, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

This is a better article. He was one of nine surviving members.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/27/0227swenson.html

Clarence Swensen of Pflugerville, who played a Munchkin in the 1939 motion picture "The Wizard of Oz," died Wednesday. He was 91 and had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2005. Swensen was one of nine surviving members of the 125 Munchkins in the classic movie who were honored in November 2007 when a star in their honor was installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"He will be forever in the hearts and minds of his family, many friends and loved ones," Swensen's daughter Donna Geohagan said Thursday on behalf of the family. "And he will be greatly missed by loyal 'Wizard of Oz' fans." Swensen, who grew up in Austin, said it never occurred to him when he was a boy living near Ridgetop School, in what was North Austin during the 1920s, that he would enter show business. He was not allowed to attend public schools until he was 9, he said, because of his size. As an adult, his height was 4 feet 6¾ inches.

Here's another bio for Swensen. He may have been a midget but he stood tall as a Texas.

Clarence Swenson - Munchkin Soldier

At 4 ft. 6 inches, Clarence began a career in show business when he appeared at the Dallas Texas Centennial of 1936 at the age of 19. After a short-lived engagement with an all-midget circus in San Antonio (where he played drums, saxophone and worked with the elephants), he appeared in "The Terror of Tiny Town." A few months later, he landed the role of Munchkin soldier in "The Wizard of Oz." Directly following, he worked in an ape costume in the film "Tarzan Finds a Son!" (1939) with Johnny Weissmuller, whom he describes as a "very nice gentleman... not the star type at all."

During WWII, he worked as a radio technician for the Air Force. From 1945 through 1973, he was employed at the University of Texas Research Center as an electronic technician.

Clarence married his sweetheart, Myrna Clifton, in 1945. The Swenson's celebrated their 59th anniversary during the 2004 Judy Garland Festival. Myrna is a most extrodinary little person in that she is the offspring of midget parents -- quite a rarity in the annals of recorded medical science. "Doctors and researchers keep saying that midgetism is not inherited," Myrna explains. Two of their three daughters are small in stature. One of their grandchildren showed signs of being a little person, but his parents took him in for hormone treatments and he grew.

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