Ellen Corby was an enthusiastic practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, and was trained by its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in 1969, as a TM teacher.
Played Edgar Bergen's wife twice - once as Aunt Trina in "I Remember Mama", and once as Grandma Walton in "The Homecoming".
Lived with Stella Luchetta from 1954 until her death.
In March of 2000, she was left out of the yearly "In Memoriam" segment
of the The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000). Ellen, who
was once nominated for an Oscar for her Supporting Role in
I Remember Mama (1948), had really only played small bit parts
in motion pictures for twenty years, before she became a key part
of television's The Waltons (1972). The Academy chose instead
to memorialize another small bit-part actor in films,
Henry Jones.
Corby was quoted as saying that her first acting job was in "Twisted Rails" according to the April 1985 issue of "Films in Review.".