I always took it for granted that there would be life after Hollywood.

Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.

Three events. Three gold medals. I was news, big news, in the sports world.

No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers

I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.