As in many aspects of Sally’s life, her marital history was complicated. OK. Not as many husbands as names, but complicated nonetheless.
I used to think Sally had 8 husbands—this would put her on par with Liz Taylor’s record. (Not that I’m competitive, or anything… ) But maybe there were only 7 husbands, or maybe only six. Then, how do you count annulments in the marriage total? How about marriages that wouldn’t have been legal because they were bigamist? I think we can confirm that at least three husbands thought they were her first; another two thought they were her second.
Then I realized I’d counted husband #1, Mr. Fansler, twice; she’d given him the code name Snyder in her book. So, that left her with only 7.
Then, there’s a good chance that she didn’t actually marry Mr. Goodan (#2), so the total drops to 6. Marriages #1 and #4 were both annulled—does this mean that it’s as if they never happened? That would bring the total to 4.
Now I fear we must subtract two more from the total, because marriage #3 (to Mr. Byham) did notend in divorce or annulment, at least not in San Francisco, where both parties lived. As Mr. Byham didn’t die until 1953, her two subsequent marriages would have been bigamist, so they don’t really count.
Finally, we get to her 1954 marriage to Big Bob Kenna. This happened after Mr. Byham died, so we can add that to the dwindling total of legal marriages. Still, what had started as 8 husbands, is now down to only TWO (legal) husbands!
What’s the fun in that???
Let me re-cap:
1 –Fansler – annulled
2 –Goodan – never happened
3 –Byham – probably didn’t end till he died in 1953
4 – Spagnoli – annulled because she was still married to Byham
5 – Rapp – ended in divorce, but probably wasn’t legal as it was bigamist
6 – Gump – [same as Rapp]
7 – Kenna – ended in divorce (Byham had died, so it was NOT bigamist)