Mary Louise Welch, a pert, blonde, and blue-eyed individual with a passion for singing, dancing, and acting, began her artistic journey at the tender age of four. Unfortunately, her stint in Hollywood did not yield the desired results, and her acting career came to a premature halt after a mere seven-year span.
Leslye, or Leslie as she was sometimes billed, started her performing career in junior plays at Glendale High School and later became a cheerleader. At the age of 19, she was signed to a five-year contract by Universal Studios, although she was initially loaned out to Columbia Pictures for her first three film roles. Her parts were largely confined to second-tier features, particularly B-grade westerns, where she played the perfunctory ornamental female lead or second lead opposite sagebrush heroes like Charles Starrett or Tex Williams.
One notable exception was her standout role in RKO's His Kind of Woman (1951),a superior gangster film featuring an all-star cast, including Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, and Raymond Burr.
By 1952, Leslye's film roles had dried up, and she devoted herself to family life. She had married her first husband, Wally Russell, Jane Russell's brother, in 1949, and they had three children together. Her second marriage to school teacher Keith E. Rogers produced seven more children. Leslye resided in Simi Valley for many years, where she returned to acting on the stage with the local community theatre, the Horizon Players.
Mary Lou Rogers, as she was known in her later years, passed away on July 22, 2014, at the age of 83, her life and career largely off the radar of the entertainment industry.
