Edward Manson Stevenson (May 13, 1906 – December 2, 1968) was an Academy Award-winning American costume designer. His film and television credits number well over two hundred, including Citizen Kane (1941) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), both frequently cited as being among the greatest films of all time. In his later years, he worked for Lucille Ball as costume designer for I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy. A large collection of his costume sketches are housed in the Department of Special collections at Eli M. Oboler Library in Pocatello, Idaho. Early life Edward Manson Stevenson was born in Pocatello, Idaho on May 13, 1906 to Jennie Uhland Stevenson (née Dolly) and Andrew Burtner Stevenson. Andrew worked for the Oregon Shortline Railroad, a subsidiary of Union Pacific, rising from dispatch clerk to division superintendent. He served a term in 1903 as senator from Bannock County in the Idaho state legislature and was the Republican nominee in 1907 for Pocatello mayor. Andrew's political activity was often limited by time spent fulfilling his duties with the railroad, duties which included a great deal of travel. Jennie, a widowed former schoolteacher, had two sons from her first marriage to Frank Uhland, Sr. who died in Denver in 1904. Andrew and Jennie married July 23, 1905 and Edward was born the following year. Stevenson was educated at St. Joseph's Catholic school and also took correspondence courses in art. He suffered from significant respiratory difficulties, and sometime in 1915, Jennie took him to California in hopes that the change in climate would provide some relief. They stayed in California into the following year and then returned to Idaho. In December 1919 when he was 13 years old, Stevenson's father died. By 1922, Stevenson and his mother had again taken up residence in California. Apprenticeship and early career Sources disagree regarding Stevenson's entry into the Hollywood film community, though the various stories all relate one of two distinct paths, both involving connections with people in the film industry. One version asserts that his mother, while traveling on a train between California and Idaho, met the friend of a Hollywood designer, possibly from the Robert Brunton studios. She impressed her new acquaintance so profoundly with some of Stevenson's artwork that she gained for her son a letter of introduction to the designer. Through this letter, Stevenson was able to get