not pretty but..

Don't know, but if she enjoyed the best of both worlds, I think that's great on a Tony the Tiger level.

Very sexy.

I'm in love with a server who works in the Sawgrass Marriott @ Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, and I think she looks a bit like Stanwyck (otherwise, this outstanding person I know looks like, or is like, no one else; the purest example of a human unicorn:-), who is my favorite early Hollywood actress of all-time. If I was of her era, I would've totally dated Barbara Stanwyck, and not just for her beauty or acting either: I think the lady was all-business, no-nonsense, smart, and a force of nature. To me, Stanwyck was a BROAD, in every best possible way.

I'm not sure I can comment on her "elegance," but I've seen her in:

Annie Oakley (1935)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Forty Guns (1957)

I felt like by '57, while she was still fairly attractive, she was starting to look like she had some miles on her.

In 1935, by my reckoning, she would've been right at 18 and she was a pretty young lady just entering adulthood. In 1944 she was a grown woman who was perhaps in her prime, looking still youthful but certainly more mature than she did in Annie Oakley.

By 1957 she's still attractive but right at 40 years old it's clear that her best days, at least in terms of her looks, were in her rear view.

Yes, just saw her in Clash By Night (1952) and she was still pretty. Definitely out-sirened Monroe in that picture.