Editing Debbie Reynolds (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Press photo of R. F. Reynolds, O. Harman, and Debbie Reynolds in 1955 (front) - retouched.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Reynolds (right) with her grandmother O. Harman (center) and father Ray Reynolds in 1955]]
Mary Frances Reynolds was born on April 1, 1932, in [[El Paso, Texas]], to Maxene N. "Minnie" Harman and Raymond Francis "Ray" Reynolds, a carpenter who worked for the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific Railroad]].{{Citation needed |date=March 2024}} She was of Scottish-Irish and English ancestry<ref>Byrne, James Patrick. Coleman, Philip. King, Jason Francis. ''Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia''. Volume 2, p. 804. ABC-CLIO, 2008; {{ISBN|978-1-85109-614-5}}.</ref> and was raised in a strict [[Church of the Nazarene|Nazarene]] church of her domineering mother.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/movies/5567938/|title=Inside Debbie Reynolds' Difficult Childhood and Complicated Relationship with Her Mother|website=People}}</ref> She had an older brother, William, who was two years her senior.<ref name=Pasadena/> Reynolds was a [[Girl Guides|Girl Scout]], once saying that she wanted to die as the world's oldest living Girl Scout.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/04/01/debbie-reynolds-memoir-unsinkable/2042269/ |title='Unsinkable' Reynolds buoyed by new memoir, life at 81 |date=April 2, 2013 |author = Wloszczyna, Susan |work=[[USA Today]]}}</ref> Reynolds was also a member of [[Job's Daughters International|The International Order of Job's Daughters]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001666/bio|title=Debbie Reynolds Biography|publisher=IMDb|access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref>

Her mother took in laundry for income, while they lived in a shack on Magnolia Street in El Paso.<ref name=Pasadena/> "We may have been poor," she said in a 1963 interview, "but we always had something to eat, even if Dad had to go out in the desert and shoot jackrabbits."{{cquote|One of the advantages of having been poor is that you learn to appreciate good fortune and the value of a dollar, and poverty holds no fear for you because you know you've gone through it and you can do it again... But we were always a happy family and a religious one. And I'm trying to inculcate in my children the same sense of values, the same tone that my mother gave to me.<ref name=Pasadena/>}}

Her family moved to [[Burbank, California]], in 1939.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://people.com/movies/from-the-people-archive-debbie-reynolds-the-golden-girl/|title=From the PEOPLE Archive: Debbie Reynolds the Golden Girl|last=Green|first=Mary|date=December 29, 2016|newspaper=People|access-date=December 29, 2016}}</ref> When Reynolds was a 16-year-old student at [[Burbank High School (Burbank, California)|Burbank High School]] in 1948, she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest.<ref name=":1" /> Soon after, she was offered a contract with Warner Brothers<ref name=":1" /> and was given the stage name "Debbie" by studio head [[Jack L. Warner]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/debbie-reynolds/ |title=Debbie Reynolds |date=May 1997 |access-date=December 28, 2016 |work=[[Texas Monthly]] |author=Dingus, Anne}}</ref>

One of her closest high school friends said that she rarely dated during her teenaged years in Burbank. {{cquote|They never found her attractive in school. She was cute, but sort of tomboyish, and her family never had any money to speak of. She never dressed well or drove a car. And, I think, during all the years in school, she was invited to only one dance.<ref name=Pasadena>"Debbie Reynolds: At 30, She's Got it Made", ''Independent Star-News'' (Pasadena, Calif.) Feb. 17, 1963</ref>}}

Reynolds agreed, saying, "when I started, I didn't even know how to dress. I wore [[Dungaree (fabric)|dungarees]] and a shirt. I had no money, no taste, and no training."<ref name=Fresno/> Her friend adds:{{cquote|I say this in all sincerity. Debbie can serve as an inspiration to all young American womanhood. She came up the hard way, and she has a realistic sense of values based on faith, love, work, and money. Life has been kind to her because she has been kind to life. She's a young woman with a conscience, which is something rare in Hollywood actresses. She also has a refreshing sense of honesty.<ref name=Pasadena/>}}