Her first marriage was to a rodeo rider. The marriage lasted four years
and produced two children, Randy and Kim.
A cheerleader in high school, she acted in campus productions of plays by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams during her freshman year at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.
Worked as a weather girl on a TV station in Miami.
Wrote a 1992 novella, titled Valerie in Giantland, based on Land of the Giants but set a decade later.