(6 June 1945 - 30 April 1946) (divorced)
(1 June 1946 - 11 April 1950) (his death)
13 November 1944 Dorothy Kilgallen reports: “Betty Furness will waltz down the aisle with Lt. Bud Ernst when he gets his divorce from Gwynn Pickford.” Ernst, at 6’-5” tall, is one foot taller than she is.
6 June 1945 marries Hugh B. Ernst, Jr., 34-year-old radio executive, recently discharged from the U.S. Army Air Forces. It’s his fourth marriage and her second. His previous wives were Althea Henley, a Ziegfeld Follies girl; Lyda Roberti, a stage, screen and radio comedienne; and Gwynne Pickford, Mary Pickford's niece. Bud grew up in show business and music. His father managed Paul Whiteman, and the gangling kid knew all the greats. He’s always wanted to go first class to do it differently. With loads of pull in New York in the musical and theatrical worlds, he went to Hollywood when he was 19 and became a radio announcer. By his own talents he worked himself up to the position of radio producer.
11 July 1945 Louella reports that “Bette Davis and Lieut. Bob Tablinger who used to be a familiar pair dining tete a tete. Seated next to them was Gwenn Pickford with her bridegroom Bud Ornstein and Bud Ernst her first husband—of all people. Ernst is married to Betty Furness. They were all guests of Mary Pickford.” Ernst is in Hollywood on business.
21 March 46
Ernst confirms she is in Vegas to end their marriage and “everybody is happy.”
12 May 1946 is back in New York after doing the six weeks of Nevada residence necessary to get her divorce from Bud Ernst. On the first night back, she was out with the same Ernst. "I spent six weeks to get rid of him," she said," and when I go back to town, the only lodging I could get was in the same hotel where he lives—and in the next room to his.”
31 May 1946 wants to be one of the first June brides; she will remarry Bud Ernst one minute after midnight in Las Vegas. They were just divorced one month ago.
1 June 46
is married one minute after midnight in Las Vegas in a double-ring ceremony performed by Reverend Albert C. Melton of Little Church of the West. Ernst is quoted: “We were silly before and behaved like children. Now, however, we've grown up and this time it will stick.
30 July 1946 Winchell spots Bud Ernst “reciting Browning to Chicago showgirl Norma Roberts.”
28 August 1946 attends Virginia Bruce’s wedding. Also at the ceremony are the Gary Coopers, Gene Tierney and husband Oleg Cassini, and Bud Ernst.
December 1946 she and her husband rent Anne Shirley’s Beverly Hills home
23 February 1950 Jimmy fiddler reports her getting a Reno divorce
Early April 1950 she and her husband have a sandwich together; it will be the last time she sees him alive. She tells him of her television successes, and he seems to be pleased. He tells her about his prospects, and they sound promising.
11 April 1950 39-year-old ex-Army flyer Bud Ernst phones Neil Maguire, Journal-American assistant city editor, from his staid East Side Westbury Hotel, upset over the crumble of his marriage to actress Betty Furness. Maguire tries to soothe Ernst by telling him to think things over and to call Betty, all the while scribbling a note telling a reporter to rush to the hotel. "I'm at the end of my rope. Get a reporter here in 10 minutes. Send up and you'll get a story." After hanging up, Ernst places the muzzle of a new 20-gauge shotgun into his mouth and pulls the trigger. A clipping of a newspaper Broadway column reporting that Ernst and Furness are to be divorced is found in the room. There are two notes, one still in the typewriter. One asks that Miss Furness be notified. The other is to "Jack," "I am tired of everything and I'm sorry for what I'm about to do."
Betty Furness identifies the body of Bud Ernst, having been taken to his hotel by the police waiting for her on the set of “Studio One,” during which broadcast he killed himself. He had sent her a note, through the mail, which she received the day after his death, saying, “Sorry, Mommy."
show business reaction is unanimous sympathy for Furness. Ernst was generally considered erratic. He had a luncheon reservation at the swanky Colony for the next noon.