Diana Serra Cary - Later Life

Later Life

At the age of seventeen, trying to escape the film industry and her parents' plans for her life, Cary ran away from home and rented an apartment with her sister Louise. She married actor Gordon Ayres in 1938, but the union was not a happy one. She divorced Ayres in 1948 and married Bob Cary (sometimes listed as Bob Carey) in 1954. The couple remained married until his death. They have one son, Mark. She adopted the name Diana Serra Cary (Diana 'because it sounded like a writers name' and Serra, in honor of Father Junipero Serra).

Eventually, after years of emotional struggle and open derision from Hollywood insiders and the media, Cary finally made peace with her past as Baby Peggy. She has had successful careers as a publisher, historian and author on Hollywood subjects, writing among other works, an autobiography of her life as a child star, What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star, and a biography of her contemporary and rival, Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star.

In recent years, Cary has continued to work as a writer. She has appeared in numerous television documentaries and interviews about her work, and has made appearances at silent film festivals. She has also advocated reforms in child performer protection laws, most recently as a member of the organization A Minor Consideration.

On November 8, 2008, Cary's 90th birthday, she was honored at the Edison Theatre in Niles, California, with a screening of two of her feature films, Helen's Babies and Captain January. In 2012 a campaign to get Cary a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was initiated on crowd-funding site indiegogo.