Jane Dobbins Green: Ray Kroc’s forgotten second wife
Jane Dobbins Green was John Wayne’s secretary before she became Ray Kroc’s second wife. She married the McDonald’s chairman on 23 February 1963, two weeks after meeting him, and they divorced in 1968. She died in 2000.
Her five years as Mrs. Kroc covered the most important stretch in McDonald’s history. The company went public, passed a thousand restaurants and launched the Big Mac while she was married to the man running it. Then she left, and a year later he married Joan.
Jane Dobbins Green: quick facts
| Detail | What’s documented |
|---|---|
| Full name | Jane Elizabeth Dobbins |
| Born | 1911, Walla Walla, Washington |
| Occupation | Secretary to John Wayne |
| Married Ray Kroc | 23 February 1963 |
| Courtship length | About two weeks |
| Divorced | 1968 |
| Children with Kroc | None |
| Died | 7 August 2000, aged 88 |
| Role at McDonald’s | None |
The firmest source for most of this is the Society for American Baseball Research, which holds a researched biography of Ray and Joan Kroc because Kroc owned the San Diego Padres. It records her as Jane Elizabeth Dobbins, born in Walla Walla in 1911, working as John Wayne’s secretary, and marrying Kroc on 23 February 1963, a fortnight after they met.
That last detail matters more than anything else written about her.
Two weeks
Before Kroc, she worked for John Wayne. That job put her inside a working film operation during Wayne’s years as one of the biggest box-office draws in America. She handled the correspondence and scheduling of a man with a punishing production rate. It was a serious job, and it is the only part of her own working life anyone recorded.
Kroc was 60 years old and had divorced Ethel Fleming, his wife of nearly four decades, in 1961. He had recently paid the McDonald brothers $2.7 million for their company.
He met Jane Dobbins Green and married her a fortnight later.
Nobody has recorded how they met, what the wedding was like, or what either of them said about the decision. What survives is the interval, and it tells you something about the man that no biography of him quite says as directly.
What her five years actually covered
This is the context every page about her leaves out, and it’s the reason her name is worth knowing at all.
| Year | What happened at McDonald’s |
|---|---|
| 1963 | The 500th restaurant opens; Ronald McDonald makes his debut |
| 1965 | The company goes public, making Kroc genuinely wealthy |
| 1967 | The Big Mac is developed and trialled |
| 1968 | The 1,000th restaurant opens; the Big Mac goes national |
She married a man who had just bet everything on a hamburger chain. She divorced a man who had won that bet.
There is no indication she held any role in the company. She was not an executive, a shareholder of note, or a spokesperson. She appears in the corporate history only as the woman Kroc was married to while it happened.
Where she sits in Ray Kroc’s story
Kroc married three times, and the middle marriage is the one everybody skips.
| Wife | Married | Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Ethel Fleming | 1922 | Divorced 1961 |
| Jane Dobbins Green | 1963 | Divorced 1968 |
| Joan Mansfield Smith | 1969 | His death, 1984 |
Ethel was the mother of his only child, Marilyn. Joan inherited his fortune and became one of the most significant philanthropists in American history.
The detail that gives Jane’s marriage its shape is that Kroc had met Joan in 1957, while still married to Ethel. He was taken with her then. He divorced Ethel in 1961, married Jane in 1963, divorced Jane in 1968, and married Joan in March 1969.
Her marriage occupies the gap between the wife he left and the woman he had wanted for over a decade. Nobody has said that was the reason it ended. The sequence is simply there in the dates.
Why she’s missing from The Founder
The 2016 film about Ray Kroc, with Michael Keaton in the lead, moves from Ethel to Joan without depicting the second marriage. There is no Jane character in the principal cast.
That omission is probably why you’re reading this. People watch the film, notice Kroc had a wife they don’t remember, search the name, and find a dozen near-identical pages that don’t explain the gap.
The film is a compression of about a decade of business history, and second marriages are the sort of thing that gets cut. It doesn’t mean she was unimportant. It means the story being told was about the company.
What isn’t verified
- The exact divorce year. Most sources say 1968. IMDb’s record gives 1969. The 1968 date is better supported.
- Her parents’ names. Versions in circulation don’t agree with each other and trace to genealogy indexes rather than to any biography.
- A second marriage in 1984. Several pages report a later marriage to a Paul D. Whitney. One page honestly notes this comes from genealogy indexes with no primary record behind it. Treat it as unconfirmed.
- Her age at death. Some pages say 89. Born in November 1911 and died in August 2000, she was 88.
- A ranch named for the couple. One page mentions a J&R Double Arch Ranch, the initials standing for Jane and Ray. It appears nowhere else and I could not confirm it. [VERIFY]
- Any Hollywood career. She worked for John Wayne as a secretary. She was not an actor or a producer, whatever some profiles suggest.
- A net worth. No figure exists for her net worth, and none should.
One correction is worth naming outright. At least one page ranking for her name describes Ray Kroc as a legendary musician. He sold paper cups and milkshake machines before he sold hamburgers. Another page carries unedited placeholder Latin text in its description. These are the pages competing for this keyword.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Jane Dobbins Green?
Ray Kroc’s second wife, and previously secretary to the actor John Wayne.
How long did she know Ray Kroc before marrying him?
About two weeks. They married on 23 February 1963.
Did she and Ray Kroc have children?
No. Kroc’s only child, Marilyn, was from his first marriage.
When did she die?
7 August 2000, aged 88.
Was she in The Founder?
No. The 2016 film moves from Kroc’s first wife to his third without depicting the second marriage.
Did she work at McDonald’s?
No. She held no corporate role at any point.
Who did Ray Kroc marry after her?
Joan Mansfield Smith, in March 1969. They stayed married until his death in 1984.
Conclusion
The reason to write about her at all is not that she was secretly important to McDonald’s. She wasn’t, and pretending otherwise would be the same invention every other page commits.
It’s that a woman married a man after knowing him a fortnight, stayed for the five years that made him rich, and then left with nothing much recorded about her at all. That’s a real story about how business history remembers people, and it doesn’t need embellishing.
JacksonPadilla is a writer at Around Celebrities, covering celebrity families, relationships, biographies, and the stories behind the stars. With a focus on clear and engaging storytelling, Kole helps readers discover the people and connections beyond the spotlight.
