Nancy Berg

Short Biography

Nancy Berg is the only child of Paul Axel Berg and Dorothy Esther (Schanock) Berg. On her father's side she is of Swedish descent. Paul Berg's grandfather, William Bernard Berg, was born April 23, 1838, in Osa, Jamtland, Sweden. He came to the United States in 1873, settled in Maple Ridge, Isanti County, Minnesota, U.S. A. and worked as a farmer. Both Paul Berg and his father Andrew Martin Berg were born in Maple Ridge. Paul Berg was one of 5 siblings, born in 1905. His father died when Paul was not quite 3 years old. His mother remarried. In his late teens Paul Berg enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. In 1925, at age 20, he had attained the rank of surfman and was located at the Coast Guard Station in Kenosha, Wisconsin, U. S. A. He served in the Coast Guard for the next 20 years. Dorothy Schanock is the oldest of three daughters of John and Frances Schanock. Her father was a carpenter. She and both her parents were born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Her paternal grandfather, however, was born in Germany. The story of the marriage of Nancy Berg's parents is a bit unusual. According to two genealogies of which Paul Axel Berg was a member - that of the Mattson Family and that of the Harrington Family with focus on Swedish lines- Paul Berg married Dorothy Esther Shunck (their spelling). The latter genealogy specified the marriage date of April 4, 1929 - a Thursday. The Kenosha Evening News of that date published a story headlined "True Love Ends in a Marriage. Sweethearts for 3 Years, Opposed by Parents, Will Be Married Soon." Since the girl was now 18, it would appear that the boy, then 21, was dating a 15 year old. In the event, the girl left a note for her parents, saying she was going off to make a living for herself. The parents called the police with suspicions that their daughter had run off with her young man. Further investigation revealed that the two were living in a small room in Chicago. Their plans to marry were thwarted when they ran out of money. A police officer was dispatched to Chicago to bring the couple back to Kenosha. At police headquarters the girl's parents talked the matter over with the policewomen and the detectives. They concluded that the best course was to let the couple marry. The followup story, "Couple Married, All's Well that Ends Well" notes that on Friday, the day after their return to Kenosha, they were married by a priest at the parsonage. Just one year later, in April, 1930, the U. S. Census for Kenosha finds Dorothy Berg, married, head of a household which includes only herself, was living in the rear of 5036 Fourth Avenue, Kenosha. That address is located on Simmons Island, the site of the Coast Guard station. On a separate census sheet devoted to the men billeted at the Coast Guard station, Paul Berg, age 25, is listed as married, head of a household consisting only of himself. At that time in the history of the Coast Guard, housing for spouses of men on active duty was not automatically provided. Indeed, for assignment to a Coast Guard station located in a remote area of shoreline, married couples would be separated for long periods of time. (Valuable research assistance for the story of Nancy Berg and her parents in the early years in Kenosha was graciously provided by Melissa Olson, Archives Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Parkside Archives & Area Research Center, Kenosha WI.) After their marriage, Paul and Dorothy Berg continued to live in Kenosha, with Paul on active duty at the Coast Guard station. In 1937, when Nancy was 6 years old, Paul was transferred to the Atlantic coast, to the Monmouth, New Jersey Coast Guard Station. The 1940 U. S. Census has Nancy, now about 8 years old, and her mother living in the small town of Little Silver, New Jersey, while her father is listed with his unit at the Coast Guard station. In a lengthy interview with syndicated columnist James L. Kilgallen, Part 3 of a ten-part series on America's "most glamorous and successful models", published in various newspapers between October 31 and November 2, 1955, Nancy Berg described her early life. She told Kilgallen that her mother had started her modeling in Kenosha when she was 3 years old. At age 6, now in New Jersey, she attended parochial school until age 14, that is, until 1945. Although her parents were still listed as living together in the 1945 Red Bank, New Jersey directory, they in fact were going through a divorce. Nancy's mother remarried in 1947. Now age 16, Nancy ran away from home. She told Kilgallen she didn't want to talk about her family, saying she was not close to them.Now on her own at age 16, Nancy went to Detroit, where she found work modeling for television commercials about home appliances. She went to Miami, Florida, where she modeled for the famous department store Burdine's, and learned trick water skiing. On May 15, 1949, a photograph of Nancy Berg modeling a bathing suit with an outline map