A sweet talent, pushed too early by a stage mother, eventually struggling through a few sad marriages, then a sudden(ish) demise,  Peggy Ann Garner was a wonderful performer, whose star, sadly, never shone past her teenage years.

Her film career began as an uncredited praying orphan in Little Miss Thoroughbred at age 7, then on to In Name Only with Cary Grant and Carole Lombard and progressively bigger roles until her starring performance as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, for which she won a special Oscar in 1945 at age 12.

Aaaand then it was pretty much downhill from there. By 1949 she was in pictures like Bomba the Jungle Boy and The Big Cat.

The second of her three marriages was to Albert Salmi, that guy who shows up in  a bunch of Twilight Zones and Westerns with the thin upper lip who talks with the top of his tongue pressed against his palate. [If you're interested in classic Salmi, may I recommend the Shatner version of The Brothers Karamazov?]

Peggy Ann did some live theater and television in the 1950s and 60s — including an episode of Batman as Betsy Boldface in "Ring Around the Riddler" (1967) — then retired from show business, ultimately making a living as a real estate broker and car sales manager.

She died in 1984 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 52.

As young Jane Eyre (1943). Perhaps you'll recognize her lovely brunette friend.

And briefly, as Betsy Boldface, in Batman some thirty years later.

I stumbled across this long, long trailer for Miracle on 34th Street while looking for something else entirely. It's a pretty clever plug for this and other pictures Fox had going in the late 40s, aided by cameos from Rex Harrison, Ann Baxter, Peggy Ann Garner (good heavens, I think the picture of her on this link is from this trailer!!), and Dick Haymes.

Enjoy.