Joan Caulfield Dies Of Cancer

LOS ANGELES - Actress Joan Caulfield, star of two 1950s television series and such Western films as "Cattle King" and "Pony Express Rider," has died of cancer at age 69.

Miss Caulfield died yesterday, two weeks after she was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said hospital spokesman Ron Wise.

Miss Caulfield entered Cedars-Sinai on June 3 and underwent cancer surgery the following day, said Wise. Specifics on her disease weren't disclosed.

In "My Favorite Husband" on CBS-TV from 1953 to 1955, Miss Caulfield played the beautiful, scatter-brained wife of banker George Cooper, played by actor Barry Nelson. The show was based on the 1948 radio show of the same name starring Lucille Ball as the nutty housewife.

On NBC-TV's short-lived "Sally" from 1957-1958, Miss Caulfield starred as Sally Truesdale, a former department store sales girl who became the traveling companion to wacky, wealthy widow Myrtle Banford, played by Marion Lorne.

Miss Caulfield, a former model, entered films in the mid-1940s as one of Paramount Pictures' top stars, appearing as the demure beauty in such films as "Duffy's Tavern" in 1945 and "Blue Skies" in 1946.

Survivors include two sons, Caulfield Kevin Ross and John

Peterson.