There had been lots of crises in my life. And there was plenty of spunk and battle cry still left in me.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

Nothing can beat the smell of dew and flowers and the odor that comes out of the earth when the sun goes down.

When I first went on the stage I was 17 and under the legal age for performers.

What broke Mom's heart was realizing that her children knew nothing and cared nothing about the better side of life.

I dressed plain, but my partners were always spending more money on clothes than I could afford.

I never posed as a saint. I would have slept with a man for nothing if I liked him well enough.