Dick Van Dyke began dating Margie Willett in 1945 when he was 20, and although they were in love, Van Dyke went to Los Angeles to pursue show business as a comedy duo called the Merry Mutes with Phil Erickson while Willett remained in Danville. “She regularly asked when I was going to send for her,” he recalled in “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.” “We were engaged, so her hints became less subtle as time passed.” After their unusual wedding ceremony, the couple settled into life in Los Angeles, where Willett miscarried twins. After she recovered, they hit the road, with Erikson taking the Merry Mutes from Reno to Miami to Atlanta.
Soon Van Dyke began making appearances on television and then Broadway before breaking into the movies, per “Celebrating the Achievements of the Older Generation: Living Life to the Full.” Willett, who was “earthy and artistic,” wore her hair short and didn’t use makeup, preferred to stay out of the limelight as her husband’s Hollywood career took off with his hit sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and such films as “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” per The Guardian. As their family grew to four children, the couple’s paths began to diverge.
