Noel Neill's good friend and biographer Larry Thomas Ward has informed us that Noel is currently in the hospital after suffering a broken hip from a fall:

"Noel is not well. This past Friday, July 23rd, Noel somehow tripped as she was walking across her living room and hit the ground hard. An ambulance was called and she was rushed to the Tucson Medical Center Emergency Room (Noel permanently moved to Tucson in April). The resulting x-rays confirmed that Noel broke her hip, the same hip she badly bruised back in March. Surgery was performed yesterday morning. While it was a successful surgery, and she survived the ordeal well, the lingering pain from that surgery is overwhelming.

She is on morphine and other pain medication. I am honestly not sure Noel will be able to survive the aftereffects of the surgery and the fall. The one good thing she has going for her is her determination - along with the fact she has been athletically sound all these years. The big thing she has against her is her age - 90 in November.

At this point all we can do is keep her comfortable and hope the pain subsides soon. If that occurs, she'll be transferred to a rehab facility for physical therapy, which might take months in order for her to recover. But at this point it is day to day.

On a lighter note, and talk about ironies, while I was in the emergency room with Noel on Friday, I was standing next to her bed chatting with her doctor when I suddenly collapsed and passed out. They plopped me into a bed close to Noel and hooked me up to a bunch of machines. Eight hous later I was released. Owe it to exhaustion, fatique and stress. Noel and I have shared a lot of things together over the years, but I never thought we'd ending up sharing the same floor at the ER.

If you have any questions, please contact me directly at my email address: larrythomasward@yahoo.com

Take care,
Larry"

The staff of the Superman Super Site prays for Noel's recovery and we will continue keep everyone updated on her condition as we hear from Larry.