Baby Patsy turned a chubby back on her public, curled up on a bed and slept through most of her "personal appearance" yesterday afternoon in Kansas City. Then, after a 4-hour nap at the home of cousins at 112 Topping avenue, the curly-haired innocent of "Our Gang" screen fame yawned and announced:
"I feel aw wight."
Baby Patsy, 4 years old and a veteran of many motion pictures, had a right to be tired. She had just arrived from a 2-day visit at Boonville, Mo., where the mayor had loaded her down with the key to the city and the populace had kept her busy with such things as giving autographs, and doing songs and dances, while visiting at the home of George Essen.
With her grandmother, Mrs. Clara E. May of Beverly Hills, Calif., who is her legal mother, she arrived at the home of Mrs. May's cousin, Dellevan Edwards, for a brief respite before leaving last night on a theater tour. When Baby Patsy finally did awaken, she was taken to the home of some more cousins, the Oscar Edwards family at 2320 Agnes avenue, to display to another group of wide-eyed neighborhood children what a real movie actress is like. And Baby Patsy is a real movie actress.
At 6 months, she was cooing and doing other baby things for the benefit of Hollywood cameras. Since she was 15 months old, she has been a regular in Our Gang comedies. Though her real name is Baby Patsy Doris May, she seriously announces herself as "Patsy May Our Gang."
To be a movie star, she thus far has had only to play and be natural for the directors. But at the conclusion next month of her personal appearance tour, Baby Patsy will begin a new kind of work, her first feature picture. The child, motherless since she was 19 days old, has been under the guardianship of her grandparents, the grandfather, M. Ross May, having been a motion picture player in the Bill Hart era.
Baby Patsy and her grandmother left for Pueblo, Colo., at 9:30 o'clock last night.