Obituaries : Marcelle L. Warren; Howard Hughes’ ‘Girl Friday’

Marcelle Lewis Warren, a former “Girl Friday” to Howard Hughes and other Hollywood film producers, died Saturday in a Ventura convalescent hospital of complications from cancer. She was 85.

Mrs. Warren, who was born March 16, 1910, in St. Paul, Minn., moved to Ventura from Santa Monica in 1981.

She went to Hollywood in the 1920s, where she worked for Howard Hughes. Despite having a strong resemblance to Jean Harlow, Mrs. Warren became a good friend of the actress, according to one of her friends.

“Jean Harlow was a good friend, they looked very similar to each other and palled around together in Hollywood,” said Jim Osborn of Ventura.

During World War II, she was an administrative assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. In 1944, she was sent to the embassy in Paris, where she met her husband, Edward DeWitt Warren, a photographer for Gen. George C. Patton.

The Warrens lived in New York City until Edward Warren died in 1963. Marcelle Warren had been an office manager for an advertising agency.

In 1965, she returned to Los Angeles, where she worked for movie producers and later managed some businesses.

A memorial service will be held at the Ventura TowneHouse at a future date. Mrs. Warren’s cremation is scheduled for today; she will be inurned at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Arrangements are under the direction of Sunset Plan in Westlake Village.