Disneyana collector and historian David Lesjak has done a remarkable bit of investigation into the life of Carolyn Kay Shafer. Who you ask? Shafer was one of Walt Disney’s first secretaries in the early-1930s, married Frank Churchill (composer of classic songs like “Whistle While You Work” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”), and died in 1977 penniless and nearly blind. There’s enough twists and turns in her life worthy of a soap opera.

(via Disney History)