Biography
Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, Texas, to George and Elizabeth Parker. Her parents married when they were around 17 or 18 years old and Elizabeth promptly gave birth to three daughters in quick succession: Dorian (1917-2008), Florian (Cissie) (1918-2010), and Georgiabell (1919-?). Thirteen years after the birth of her last daughter, Elizabeth thought she was going through menopause and was shocked to discover that she was pregnant. She gave birth to her fourth daughter, Cecilia (1932-2003) (who became known as model/actress Suzy Parker). The family moved to Jackson Heights, Queens soon after Dorian's birth and later to Metuchen, N.J. There George Parker invented a new form of etching acid, production of which gave him enough income to retire.
Dorian graduated from Newton High School in Queens, NY, in 1935 and enrolled at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. In her autobiography, Dorian claimed that she was born in 1920 and graduated from High School at age 15 in 1935, because she took many classes because she loved learning and the school was overcrowded. This was not true. She also wrote that she was a 17-year-old college sophomore when she first married, when in fact, she was 20. At college, she met her first husband, Marshall Powell Hawkins, whom she married on a whim in North Carolina in 1937. They had two children: Thomas Lofton ("TL") Hawkins (1939) and Marsha Hawkins (1940). The couple separated in the 1940s.
Dorian then worked as a file clerk at a department store in Manhattan and as a tabulator keeping track of radio program ratings. Dorian found that she had an aptitude for math, mechanical engineering, and drawing. She began to go to night school at Rutgers and said she learned about mechanical engineering at New York University.
Dorian worked at Bell Laboratories and then, during World War II, she was a tool designer at Eastern Air Lines (with their Eastern Aircraft division). Dorian assisted in the design of airplane wings, beginning at 65 cents an hour and ending up with an hourly wage of $1.00. After failing to be promoted because she was a woman and because of a wartime freeze on positions, Dorian quit and took a job with Republic Pictures as an apprentice copywriter. While writing ad copy for the B movies Republic rented and distributed to movie houses, she was encouraged by a Mrs. Wayburn to try modeling.
Read more about this topic: Dorian Leigh
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