SEPTEMBER 1959. I was 22 years old. This is STARDOM MAGAZINE...
Photographed in the finest old movie star mode, and frequently compared to the late, great, actor James Dean, through the years people would look at me and ask themselves "Is that what James Dean would look like if he were 40, 50, 60, 70?" I can only disappoint. In my opinion, feature by feature, I never looked that much like Jimmy, but there was a resemblance, and the Deans told me I had the same slump posture and a way of walking and moving that was like their grandson when I visited them on the farm to prepare for my role as James Dean.
This article, calling me a Teen Delight, was a bit erroneous as I was not a teenager myself in these photos, but I was supposed to be every teenage girl's delight, and the magazines ran articles about me that gave many teenage girls every reason to fantasize about me. I received thousands of letters, huge, heavy bags of fan mail. It was exciting but to tell you the truth at the very start I was petrified. It took the experience of performing and meeting people all over the country to relax into stardom. And, as part of stardom, I met other stars. I met most of them with ease but once in a while I had a total fan reaction myself.
It was growing up in the Smokey Mountains and having sensible down to earth parents and kin that served me well when I was meeting people.
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