Shirley Temple (Image via Blogspot)

Shirley Temple, the curly-haired child star of the 1930s, died Tuesday of natural causes at the age of 85. Temple became famous for her Depression era movies such as Curly Top, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Bright Eyes. Beginning her career at the age of three, Temple starred in forty movies before the age of twelve, and won a miniature Oscar in 1935. 

 As an adult, she ran a failed bid for Congress in a Republican primary contest, and was appointed in 1968 as delegate to the 24th General Assembly of the United Nations. She became a successful diplomat, earning appointments as the first female White House chief of protocol, and as Ambassador to both Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She said of her diplomatic successes, "The thing that's nice about being Shirley Temple is that Shirley Temple opens doors for me…So, I have friends in some places in many parts of the world even the U.S. government doesn't have.''  

Shirley Temple died in her Woodside, California home of 46 years.

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