In 1940 Rogers purchased a 1000-acre (4 km²)
ranch between
Shady Cove, Oregon and
Eagle Point, Oregon, along the
Rogue River, just north of
Medford. The ranch, named the 4-R's (for Rogers's Rogue River Ranch), is where she would live, along with her mother, when not doing her Hollywood business, for 50 years. The ranch was also a
dairy, and supplied milk to
Camp White for the war effort during
World War II. Rogers loved to fish the Rogue every summer. She sold the ranch in 1990 and moved to Medford.
Politically, Rogers was a
Republican.
She lived for much of her life with her mother, Lela Rogers (1891–1977), who was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. Lela was also one of the first women to enlist in the
Marine Corps, and was a founder of the
Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.
Rogers's mother "named names" to the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and both mother and daughter were staunchly anti-Communist. They had an extremely close mother-daughter relationship — Rogers's mother even denied Rogers's father visitation rights after their divorce.
Rogers's first marriage was to her dancing partner
Jack Pepper (real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on
March 29,
1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934, she married her second husband, actor
Lew Ayres (1908 – 1996). They separated quickly and were divorced in 1941. In 1943, she married her third husband,
Jack Briggs, a
Marine. They divorced in 1949.
A recent biography of actor
James Stewart claims that Stewart lost his virginity to Ginger Rogers. (
New York Times Book Review, Nov.2006)
In 1953, Rogers married her fourth husband,
lawyer Jacques Bergerac. 16 years her junior, he became an actor and then a cosmetics company executive. They divorced in 1957 and he soon remarried actress
Dorothy Malone. In 1961, she married her fifth husband, director and producer
William Marshall. They divorced in 1971.
Rogers was good friends with
Lucille Ball (a distant cousin on her mother's side) for many years until Ball's death in 1989, at the age of 77. Ball did not seem to share Rogers's political views, but evidently still enjoyed her friendship, as did
Bette Davis, a
Democrat who definitely did not share Rogers's views and called her a "moralist", but still professed to enjoying her company.
Ginger Rogers was a cousin of actress/writer/socialite
Phyllis Fraser (whose acting career was brief).
It has been said in books and other publications that Rogers was Rita Hayworth's cousin but they were not blood relatives. Their connection is as follows: Hayworth's mother's brother, Vinton Hayworth (Hayworth's uncle), was married to Rogers's mother's sister, Jean Owens (Rogers's aunt).
Rogers would spend the winters in
Rancho Mirage, California, and the summers in
Medford, Oregon. Ginger Rogers died on
April 25,
1995, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 83, in Rancho Mirage, and was
cremated. Her ashes are interred in the
Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in
Chatsworth, California.
The
Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford, Oregon is named in her honor.
