Marilyn Llewelling was born November 19 in Fort Worth, Texas and was the daughter of Jane McClure and Truman Llewelling. Am unsure of her birth year which has been reported as 1919, 1920 and 1921.

The WAMPAS Baby Stars, a yearly selection of 13 promising starlets, was conducted by The Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers from the early 1920s through the mid 1930s. Lynn was a "Baby Star" but not during the WAMPAS sponsorship. In 1940, the Motion Picture Publicists Association selected 13 "Baby Stars": Ella Bryan, Lucia Carroll, Peggy Diggins, Lorraine Elliott, Jayne Hazard, Joan Leslie, Kay Leslie, Gay Parkes, Lois Ranson, Sheila Ryan, Patricia Van Cleve, Tanya Widrin ... and Marilyn [Lynn] Merrick.

Merrick's primary screen time occurred in the early 1940s in 22 feature films for Republic Pictures. Sixteen of those were Don Barry westerns. You may want to increase her Republic total to 23 as Lynn was also one of many former "Baby Stars" in the short MEET THE STARS #2: BABY STARS (Republic, 1941).

According to Jack Mathis' book, Republic Confidential, Volume 2, The Players (Jack Mathis Advertising, 1992), Merrick was signed to a Republic term player contract(s) which ran from March 31, 1941 through March 30, 1943.

A bit of trivia on Lynn's Republic work: her first with Barry was TWO GUN SHERIFF (Republic, 1941) with Barry playing dual roles as good/bad brothers (see pressbook ad on the left). And her finale with him was FUGITIVE FROM SONORA (Republic, 1943), with Don again doing double-duty as good/bad brothers (see lobby card at bottom of this page).

She was "Marilyn Merrick" during her earliest film work, but that was changed to "Lynn Merrick". Perhaps she became Lynn at the time - or soon after - she connected with Republic Pictures.

After Republic, Lynn went to work at Columbia in a few more films - for example, you can spot her in several Columbia series including the Whistler (with Richard Dix), Boston Blackie (with Chester Morris), and Crime Doctor (with Warner Baxter).

Jack Tillmany adds some additional info on Merrick's screen career before and after her couple of years at Republic:

... she appears in THROWING A PARTY, a July 1941 Warner Bros. 2-reeler, part of their Blue Ribbon Comedies series. I suspect this had actually been filmed the year before when she was working at Warners in TIL WE MEET AGAIN and FLIGHT ANGELS (both 1940), since it boasts an all Warner Bros. cast. Her last Hollywood film, Columbia's I LOVE TROUBLE, was completed in the summer of 1947, but not released until 1948. Her final film appearance in ESCAPE FROM TERROR (1954) is a real curiosity. Jackie Coogan produced and starred in it; it was filmed in Denmark, apparently while Lynn was in Europe; Gabriel Dell also found his way into it. It got sparse bookings, and the only review I found said it was not good at all.

In summary, her Hollywood career ran from about 1940-1947 and consisted of about 45 films. She retired around 1947.

Lynn was married and divorced twice - her first was to actor Conrad Nagel (1897-1970). Her second was to movie producer Robert Goelet, Jr. (1921-1989), but that pairing was troubled and the couple divorced in the mid 1950s. She had no children.

The family-placed funeral notice which was published in The Palm Beach Post newspaper noted that Lynn passed away on March 25, 2007 at her West Palm Beach, Florida home.