Critics established a snobbery toward me.

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious.

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.