Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball, known as Lucy, was an atypical woman ahead of her time. She nurtured a struggling talent, overcame her shyness, and achieved accomplishments and awards in comedy and television. Remarkably, she helped solve a career dilemma which transformed the television filming process. Assuredly, the most watched and well known series of Lucille Ball’s career is I Love Lucy. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t seen one of her shows. We still connect her to Desi Arnaz whom she fell in love with, married and starred together as Lucy and Ricky in the show I Love Lucy.

Lucille lived fully emerged in life and endeared television audiences in comedy as an actress. From a young age however, Lucy had lost her father and had constant changes in her living arrangements. This gave her an appreciation for different places and styles of living, and she learned to adapt to life’s circumstances. She also developed a love of comedy and a sense of humor even though life may not have been humorous. She wanted to make others laugh. Her passion, will and desire were stronger than those who told her to give up.

Before she was born, Lucy’s parents were living in Montana, but her mother went back to Jamestown, New York so Lucy’s grandmother could help deliver the baby when Lucy was born on August 6, 1911. Lucy and her mother returned to Montana to meet her father Henry Ball, who only three years later died (Harmon, 2003). Lucy and her mother went back to live with their grandparents in New York, and Lucy’s brother Fred was born four months later. Lucy & Fred called their Grandpa Hunt “Daddy”. It was while living here that they visited the Celeron Amusement Park where Lucy fell in love with vaudeville and said “All I knew was that I wanted to make people laugh” (Princess, 2002).

However, Lucy’s mother later married Ed Peterson, a man who didn’t want stepchildren. When they moved to Michigan, Lucy went to live with Ed’s mother who worked her hard and made her...