It is hard to believe that the sweet little girl pictured above turns 80 years of age today!

Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928) is an Academy Award-winning actress most famous for being an iconic American child actor of the 1930s, who enjoyed a notable career as a diplomat as an adult. After rising to fame at the age of six with her breakthrough performance in Bright Eyes in 1934, she starred in a series of highly successful films which won her widespread public adulation and saw her become the top grossing star at the American box-office during the height of the Depression. She went on to star in films as a young adult in the 1940s. In later life, she became a United States ambassador and diplomat.

For further information please see her wiki entry, and the Shirley Temple Official fan site.

As I child I really loved her films, and she is a reminder to me of a kinder, and gentler time as an eternal child