Child Actress. Born Jo Ann Mares in Schuyler, Nebraska to Edward and Theora Mares. Jo Ann was discovered on a family vacation in Hollywood at age 4 by a Warner Brothers director in a restaurant. Relocating the family to California, the little pint size actress adopted the stage name Jo Ann Marlowe. She would act for the next 10 years in 29 motion pictures including Yankee Doodle Dandy which won an Oscar for James Cagney. Jo Ann played the role of 6 year old Josie Cohan. She is best known as the younger daughter, Kay, in Mildred Pierce. She left acting in the early 1950s and went on to law school at Loyola University in Los Angeles and became a lawyer. In September, 1960 she married John F. Dunne in California. The couple had a daughter, who was born in 1963. The couple divorced in April 1968 in Los Angeles. Jo Ann was successful even after being a childhood star, she was a Chief Trial Lawyer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. In late 1968 she suffered injuries in a car accident. Jo Ann  was left in a coma until her death 22 years later when she died at her mother’s home in Los Angeles at the age of 55. (bio by: Shock)  Family links:  Parents:  Edward Joseph Mares (1909 – 1990)  Theora Jeanette Robertson Mares (1914 – 2011)  Sibling:  Jo Ann Marlowe (1935 – 1991)  Philip Sean Mares (1955 – 1960)* *Calculated relationship