Farrah Fawcett

Ferrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, the younger of two daughters.^[3] Her mother, Pauline Alice (née Evans), was a homemaker, and her father, James William Fawcett, was an oil field contractor. She was of Irish, French, English and Choctaw Native American ancestry. Fawcett once said the name "Ferrah" was "made up" by her mother because it went well with their last name; she later changed the spelling.



A Roman Catholic, Fawcett's early education was at the parish school of the church her family attended, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Corpus Christi. She graduated from W. B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi in 1965. For three years, 1965–68, Fawcett attended the University of Texas at Austin, living one semester in Jester Center, and became a sister of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. During her sophomore year, she appeared in a photo of the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds" from the university, which ran in Cashbox magazine.


A Hollywood publicist saw the photo, called Fawcett and over the course of a year urged her to move to Los Angeles, which she did the summer following her junior year, with her parents' permission to "try her luck" in Hollywood over the course of the summer. She did not return.