- Made ends meet by working as a waitress in an ice cream parlour near the UCLA campus in 1955.
- A young Norma Jeane Baker (later sex goddess Marilyn Monroe) lived in a foster home situation with Jody's stepmother, Grace McKee, a good friend of her mother Gladys Baker and a film librarian for Columbia Studios, on and off for several years (1935-42). It was supposedly Grace who paid for Norma Jeane's singing, dancing and piano lessons and she became Norma Jeane's legal guardian when her mother Gladys Baker was institutionalized. Grace McKee Goddard married Jody's father, Erwin Goddard, in 1937 and together they lived in their modest Van Nuys bungalow. 11-year-old Jody eventually moved in with her father and met her 15-year-old foster sister Norma Jeane during the 1941-42 period. Jody later described Norma Jeane as a "shy and introverted girl," somewhat neurotic, who clammed up and was very sensitive toward her surroundings. At one point Jody's father volunteered to serve as Marilyn's business manager when the star started to make money. Marilyn, however, eventually phased Erwin out of her dealings. In 1953 Jody's stepmother, Grace, who set Norma Jeane up with her first husband, James Daugherty, committed suicide from a barbiturate overdose. Interestingly, it was Marilyn who made all the funeral arrangements for Grace and it was Marilyn who killed herself in the very same manner nine years later in 1962.
- 1955 Deb Star.
- Noted as an expert swimmer.
- Under contract to Columbia from 1949-53.
- Foster sister to Marilyn Monroe
- From her first marriage, daughter Victoria Tilton on October 6, 1957. She had two children from her second marriage, Robert Wolf Herre, Jr. and Abigail Christian "Chrissy" Herre (October 10, 1963).
- Asked Columbia Pictures execs to recast her role of Nancy Flynn in the musical All Ashore (1953) because she felt her singing and dancing skills were not up to par. The studio refused and Jody wound up performing the role. The studio later released her from her contract due to this "difficulty". The irony of it all is that her singing and dancing abilities (as well as that of Barbara Bates) were barely utilized in the film other than a brief bit in the film's closing song "Boy Meets Girl / Catalina". Mickey Rooney, Dick Haymes, Peggy Ryan and Ray McDonald handled almost all of the musical chores.
- Stepdaughter of film librarian and editor Grace McKee.
- Co-founded Screen Tests Inc. with Benno Schneider in February 1953.
- Her first cousin, also named Nona Goddard, was the widow of US Congressman Richard Bolling (1916-91).
- Appeared with Anthony Quinn in the films Mask of the Avenger (1951), The Brigand (1952), and Hot Spell (1958).
- Third cousin once removed of writer/director Robert Wheaton.
- Appeared with John Derek in the films Mask of the Avenger (1951), The Family Secret (1951), and The Leather Saint (1956).
- Fifth cousin of actress Carol Forman.
- Anthony Dexter appeared back to back with her in The Brigand (1952), and Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953).
- The youngest of three children. She had an older sister and brother.
- Her ashes were sprinkled around Ojai Valley where she was a member of its women's golf country club.
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