Olive at age 20
When was Olive born?
Many books and web sites say that Olive was born in 1907. That information is incorrect. She was actually born on July 14, 1906. This myth started when Olive moved to Hollywood to become an actress. Like many other starlets she started lying about her age. Olive often claimed she was one or two years younger than she really was. The misconception about Olive's age continued throughout her career. Most of the articles that were written about her were incorrect about her age. One article from 1924 said that Olive was sixteen years old. It was written shortly after her eighteenth birthday. When Olive died in 1947 almost every one of her obituaries said that she was forty years old. The truth is that she was forty-one years old when she died. Her California death certificate confirms that she was born in July 1906. Olive's true date of birth can also be found on her grave at Forest Lawn. The epitaph on her tombstone reads "OLIVE BORDEN BELOVED DAUGHTER 1906 - 1947".
Her grave
Did Olive come from a wealthy family?
It was often reported that Olive was an heiress who came from a wealthy Southern family. These stories are false. The Borden family was not rich. This myth started because Olive liked to embellish the facts of her childhood in interviews. Several newspaper articles even mention her family's plantation. Olive's father was actually a poor farmer from Virginia. After he died in 1908 her mother, Sibbie, worked as a maid and a restaurant manager in Maryland. She earned enough to give Olive a good education. Olive and her mother moved to California in 1922 with very little money. For a while they lived with Sibbie's sister. Olive and Sibbie invested everything they had in a candy store. When the store closed six months later they only had seventy-five cents left. Olive started earning $1,500 a week when she worked for Fox. She did not spend her money wisely and by 1940 she was bankrupt. Unfortunately Olive and Sibbie would both spend their final years at the Sunshine Mission For Women.
During her days at Fox
Was Olive's real name Sybil Tinkle?
Some sources claim that Olive's real name was Sybil Tinkle. This is not true. She was given the name Olive Borden at birth. This myth started when a woman named Sybil Tinkle moved from Texas to Hollywood. Sybil told her family she had become an actress and was changing her name to Olive Borden. Eventually Sybil stopped contacting her family. She looked a lot like the real Olive and her family thought she had become a star. When Sybil's brother died in Texas some newspapers reported that Olive Borden's brother had died. Olive actually did have a brother who died before she was born. It is unclear whether this was simply a mix-up or if Sybil was trying to steal Olive's identity. The fact that Olive's mother was named Sybil may have added to the confusion. In 1948 Sybil Tinkle's relatives came to Hollywood to try to find her. They learned that Olive had died and thought that Sybil was dead. Later they discovered that Olive and Sybil were two different people. No one knows what happened to Sybil Tinkle.
The one and only Olive
