Judy Garland will forever be one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors. On the heels of her breakout performance in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, she went on to star in Girl Crazy, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Clock, Summer Stock, A Star is Born, and more. By the time of her death in 1969, she had made 37 movies and solidified her legacy in the entertainment history.
Behind the scenes, Garland spent much of her time raising her three children: Liza Minelli, Lorna Luft, and Joe Luft. And today, though the star is gone, her family is still growing. Garland’s only granddaughter, Vanessa Jade Richards (known also as Vanessa Hooker) has welcomed her youngest great-grandchild into the world. See the family now!
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Richards is a wellness and nutrition coach.
With a family as steeped in Hollywood history as hers, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Richards—the daughter of Lorna Luft and late musician Jake Hooker—enter the movie industry. Instead, her passions have led her to a career in health and wellness. She currently works as a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach in Ventura, California, training clients to live their healthiest lives.
But just because she hasn’t pursued the film industry doesn’t mean she’s forgotten her Hollywood heritage. In pictures of her gym, which she frequently posts on social media, you may notice a tribute to her late grandmother: a poster for Garland’s 1940 musical Little Nellie Kelly hangs above her exercise equipment.
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She’s a proud mom to Judy Garland’s great-grandson.
Richards is a newlywed and mother to five-year-old son Logan, whom she shares with her husband, Patrick O’Neill. Luft took to social media on Jun. 10, 2016, the anniversary of her famous mother’s birth, to welcome her new grandson, and Garland's great-grandson. She addressed the message directly to her mother via Facebook: “Happy Birthday Mamma from your family. We love you.” Alongside the image, in which Luft and Richards cradle the newborn baby, she signed the message from “Lorna, Vanessa, and our newest addition, 5 day old baby Logan.”
Luft has often talked about her mother’s legacy as a gift she gave to her family—and specifically Garland’s great-grandchildren. “The most important thing to realize is what she left us,” she has said. “Yes she passed away early, but what an incredible legacy she left to you, me, and my grandchildren,” she told Good Morning Britain in 2019.
Garland also has two great-grandchildren through her grandson, Jesse Richards: Jordan and Luke Richards.
The family works hard to honor Garland’s legacy.
Fans have long celebrated Judy Garland’s legacy in film—but there’s no one more intent on celebrating her contribution to entertainment than her own family. Though the actress famously struggled with addiction and financial woes—and Luft has admitted as much in her book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir—Garland's children have always emphasized her more positive qualities. They're quick to mention her sense of humor, her warmth, her talent, and her magnetism.
“I’m the luckiest person in the world to have had her as my mom,” Luft shared on Good Morning Britain. In the documentary series Somebody’s Daughter, Somebody’s Son, Luft stressed that Garland was not a "bad mother," but instead “a wonderful mother who had problems.” She painted an enchanting picture of a Hollywood childhood full of star-studded parties with her "mom's colleagues"—Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart, to name a few—and simultaneously, more normalcy than you'd guess.
She added that she feels "protective" of her mom’s legacy and career. "I feel that if you really want to know about my mom, go see her movies and go listen to her recordings, and that’s how you’ll know about her," she said.
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Garland's legacy is already a part of her great-grandson's life, too.
Though Garland's life was sadly cut short and she never had the chance to meet her great-grandchildren, the family has made sure they will know the family's famous matriarch. On more than one occasion, baby Logan has been pictured in front of Garland’s mausoleum in Los Angeles. In one image, he is pictured with Richards and her husband, and in another taken years later, he is held by Luft in front of the memorial site.
In 2017, the famed actress was brought from her original burial site in New York and laid to rest in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The family held a private memorial for her on what would have been her 95th birthday. In a statement to the press, the family thanked Garland’s “millions of fans around the world for their constant love and support.”
It's safe to say that Garland won't be forgotten any time soon.
