Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 424425426427428429430431432433434435436437438439440441442443444445446447448449450451452453454455456457458459460461462463464 of 1029

Was she working in New York?

Yes. She was born in Kansas City, but at the age of one she was taken to Oklahoma by her mother. Her father was killed in a natural gas explosion. A whole block was razed, and Phyllis was thrown as a little baby quite a distance. She still has a little moon-shaped scar that you can scarcely see on her face that she got when she was a baby. Her mother got quite a lot of money from the city and took Phyllis to Oklahoma City where she grew up and went to Classen High School and where, it seems to me, she had 942,000 classmates. Every time I go someplace I meet somebody who knew Phyllis at Classen High School in Oklahoma City. She was a very popular little girl.

Now, nearby was her aunt Lela, Lela Rogers, and her first cousin Ginger.

In Oklahoma City?

They were in Texas, which is not very far away. They were in Dallas or Fort Worth, I think. At the age of about fourteen, Ginger won a Charleston contest in the Fort Worth theater, I think it was, and she was discovered that way. She came to Broadway and then Hollywood, of course, and then the whole world opened up. But there was a time when Lela was taking care of the two girls.

Why did she take care of both of them?