It all started on March 3, 1944 in East
Liverpool,Ohio. I was born to Kenneth C. DeLanie and
Betty Jean Knox DeLanie. I was the third of three
children. That three sure pops up alot, I wonder if
it has a meaning? LOL! Any ways, I have two older
brothers..Robert G. and David L. DeLanie. I hate to
say this but....there are three years between
us.David is three years older than I, and Robert is
three years older than David. My father left us
before I was two years old so I never got a chance to
know him as a person or a father. It took me many
years to realize how much his leaving affected my
life and how I felt and what I looked for in a man.
Most of my childhood was spent in Canonsburg,
Pa. except for two years in a little bitty town
called Taylorstown. Boy I loved it there. The town
was basically one street long with a couple of side
streets.The local school was a big old building with
two rooms up stairs and two rooms down stairs. Two
grades were in each room with one teacher for both
grades. It was a wonderful school with wonderful
teachers. I have a lot of good memories of that
place.
We moved back to Canonsburg when I was ten
yr's old to a new housing project. This is where I
spent my teen years which were pretty good. I started
dating when I was thirteen years old which I'm sure a lot
of people
would say is to young. It's not that I
was that interested in boys, I just liked the idea of going
to the movies free. I was the first of my friends to date
so it was a big deal to them. They
all had to help me get dressed and then watched out
the window while I left on the date. I remember the
boys name but can't
remember the movie. Must not have been very good.(-:
I did a lot of dating as a teen but never met
anyone I really cared about to the point I was
tempted to do something I shouldn't. I even got
engaged at seventeen for all the wrong reasons.You
want to know why?...I'll tell ya. I was the only one
in high school with a diamond ring. Oh I was bad but
when your young you do stupid things. You heard that
saying "Payback is a bitch" Well I got mine in
spades. My best friend had a brother that came
home from the Navy and the first time I laid eyes on him
I was a gonner.
He was beautiful, I know, men are
handsome not beautiful but to me he was.
He was five
years older than I was so to him I was a kid.
Atleast I think that's what he thought. One Christmas Eve he
kissed me and if he hadn't been holding me up
I would have hit the floor.lol! I had it bad.
Anyways he left for California to be a cop and I never saw him
again.I still remember the pain I felt when he left.
About two years later I got engaged again.
Was I in love this time? No! I cared for him
a lot but that special something was missing.
I met him on a blind
date that my coworker set up because her boyfriend
was home on leave from the Air Force and had brought
a friend with him. We hit it off right away and
started writing and the next thing I knew I was on a
bus to Newport R.I. to stay with him and his family.
While there I got a job to pay my own way and
we got to know each other better. I stayed for about
three months then went home. That Christmas he sent
me an engagement ring after he asked me to marry him.
Then one day I got a call from a friend in Newport
and she told me he was running around with some other
girl. Well that two timing little snake!!!! Ticked me
off I'll tell you. I'm not the type to take things
lying down, no sir.I went and found the nearest pone
shop and hocked his ring. Then a friend and I
left for Washington D.C. to find work and where the
men at that time out numbered the women ten to one.
Things were looking up.