Most people who search for Loretta Barnett Combs arrive at the same question — who exactly was she, and how does she connect to classic Hollywood? She is not a household name. She does not appear in film history books or entertainment magazines. But she is connected to someone who does — actor John Agar — and that connection is what draws most people to search her name.
This article covers what is actually known about her: her confirmed birth and death details, her family background, her long marriage to John Agar, and the children they had together. Where public information is limited, that will be stated clearly rather than filled in with guesswork.
Who Was Loretta Barnett Combs
Her full name was Loretta Grace Barnett Combs. In some records, she also appears as Loretta Agar, the name she carried after her marriage. Genealogy databases, including MyHeritage and Ancestry, are among the main sources that document her life in any detail.
She was born on September 7, 1922, in Los Angeles, California. She died on January 27, 2000, in the Los Angeles and Burbank area, at age 77.
MyHeritage’s biographical summaries describe her as an actress. However, no specific film credits appear in the available public records. It would be inaccurate to present her as a known Hollywood figure in her own right. What the records do confirm is that she was connected to the entertainment world and spent most of her life in California.
In practical terms, she is best understood as a celebrity-adjacent person — someone whose story is documented mainly because of her relationship with a well-known actor, not because of a public career of her own.
Her Family Background and Parents
Ancestry’s genealogy records list her parents as David Alva Barnett and Aletta Loretta Kimmel. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, placing her squarely in mid-20th-century California life.
If you have been searching genealogy databases and found slightly different versions of her name, that is normal. Records show her as Loretta Grace Barnett Combs, Loretta Barnett Combs, Loretta Grace Combs Barnett Agar, and simply Loretta Agar. These all refer to the same person.
Name variations like these are common for women of her era who adopted married names and were indexed differently across different databases and census records. It is also worth noting that several other women named Loretta Combs or Loretta Barnett appear in Find A Grave and Ancestry records — with maiden names like Oldham, Schisler, Sullivan, and Cox. Those are entirely different individuals and should not be confused with Loretta Grace Barnett Combs, wife of John Agar.
John Agar — The Actor She Married
To understand why Loretta’s name comes up in Hollywood-related searches, it helps to know who John Agar was.
John George Agar was born on January 31, 1921, and died on April 7, 2002. He was an American film actor who worked steadily from the late 1940s through the following decades.
He is best remembered for his work with director John Ford in two westerns: Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), both starring John Wayne. Those roles put him on the map as a recognizable face in Hollywood. Later in his career, he appeared in science-fiction and horror films, including Tarantula and The Mole People, which gave him a second wave of recognition among fans of that genre.
Before he married Loretta, Agar had a very public first marriage. In 1945, he married Shirley Temple, one of the most famous child stars in American film history. That marriage received enormous media coverage and shaped how the public saw Agar during his early career. The marriage ended in divorce, and it remained one of the most-discussed chapters of his personal life for decades.
His second marriage — to Loretta — was quieter and much longer. It is the part of his story that genealogy researchers often uncover and want to understand better.
Their Marriage and Life Together
Loretta and John Agar married on May 16, 1951. According to Geneastar’s family tree for John Agar, the couple attempted to elope, but officials declined to perform the ceremony for about an hour because Agar had been drinking. It is a small, sourced detail that gives a human dimension to what is otherwise a sparse historical record.
A 1951 press photo showing the couple in Las Vegas around the time of their marriage also exists as a public record. It is one of the few tangible pieces of evidence of their early life together.
What followed was a long marriage by any standard. Loretta and John Agar remained together for 49 years, until her death in January 2000. Agar died two years later, in 2002.
They had two sons together: Martin Agar and John G. Agar III. Both are confirmed by Find A Grave records and Geneastar’s family documentation.
The length of the marriage stands out, especially when placed next to Agar’s earlier, much more publicized first marriage. There is no need to read too much into that contrast — the facts simply speak for themselves. A 49-year marriage is a long and stable one by any measure.
What the Records Say — and What They Don’t
It is worth being honest about the limits of available information on Loretta Barnett Combs.
MyHeritage describes her as an actress, but no film credits or major roles appear in the public record. It is possible she had some involvement in the entertainment industry — the label may reflect a minor or uncredited role, a modeling career, or simply the way the database categorizes individuals connected to Hollywood. Geneastar describes her as a model. Without more specific sourcing, neither “actress” nor “model” can be stated with full certainty as a defined career.
What is confirmed is this:
- Born September 7, 1922, in Los Angeles, California
- Parents: David Alva Barnett and Aletta Loretta Kimmel
- Married John George Agar on May 16, 1951
- Had two sons: Martin Agar and John G. Agar III
- Remained married to John Agar for 49 years
- Died January 27, 2000, in the Los Angeles/Burbank area
Beyond these anchors, the details of her private life are simply not part of the public record. That is true for many spouses of mid-century actors — they lived alongside fame without always being visible within it.
Why Loretta Barnett Combs Still Gets Searched Today
There are a few reasons why her name continues to come up in searches, even decades after her death.
People researching John Agar’s personal life naturally encounter her name. Those building family trees connected to the Barnett, Kimmel, Combs, or Agar family lines look her up to verify dates and relationships. And collectors of vintage press photography occasionally find 1951 images labeled with her name alongside Agar’s and want to know who she was.
She also represents a type of figure that appears often in classic Hollywood history — a spouse who lived close to the spotlight without stepping into it, and whose story is now pieced together mostly through genealogy databases rather than entertainment journalism. If you are researching similar figures, sites like Honest Business Tips can offer useful guidance on how to navigate and cross-reference historical records effectively.
The best approach to researching someone like Loretta is to triangulate sources. Start with one genealogy database — say, Geneastar’s family tree for John Agar — then cross-check with MyHeritage and Ancestry to confirm dates, names, and family connections. That method helps filter out the other women with similar names who appear in unrelated records.
A Quiet but Real Part of Hollywood History
Loretta Barnett Combs was not a Hollywood star. She was not a public figure in the way her husband was. But she was a real person with a documented life — born in Los Angeles, raised in a California family, married to a working actor for nearly half a century, and the mother of two sons.
Her story is not dramatic in the way that early Hollywood marriages often were. It is quieter than that. And sometimes that is exactly what the record shows: a long, private life lived alongside someone more publicly known.
If you came here looking for who she was, now you know. The records are limited, but they are clear on the facts that matter most.
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