Photo: People
It was 90 years ago today, April 26th 1933 that Carol Creighton Burnett came into the world at the Nix Hospital on Navarro Street, San Antonio. Her mother Ina wrote publicity for movie studios while her dad, Joseph worked as a manager of a movie theater.
Photo: Nix Hospital…..Mostly True
In her autobiography “One More Time” she said that her earliest memories were being bathed in the kitchen sink. She said, “ I couldn’t have been much over two, because I fit in it. Mama kept the door on the stove oven open, and I’d stare at the waves of air the heat made. I remember her drying me, holding me, kissing me, and putting me to bed. It felt good. Sometimes she’d wake me up after I’d fallen asleep, when she’d pull my thumb out of my mouth. It made me mad”
Photo: Author
Both of her parents suffered from alcoholism, and following their separation, she and her mother and sister went to live with her grandmother in the Prospect Hill area of San Antonio. The house she grew up in was located at 3301 W. Commerce Street in San Antonio. It was the house of her grandmother and great-grandmother, who she knew as “Nanny” and “Goggy” respectively.
Photo: Pinterest
A few years ago, they loaded her childhood home onto the back of a trailer and moved it down W. Commerce Street to a new location.
Photo: San Antonio Express News
Photo: Carol Burnett’s childhood home in current location…Author
Photo: Letter to a young Carol Burnett….Author
Although it was a traumatic time for the young child, she has fond memories of the house that she grew up in, recalling one of her favorite activities. She said,” the sidewalk was all cracked and wavy, like little hills, and the weeds pushed their way up through the cement. I had to roller skate there anyway, because they wouldn’t let me out of their sight, and they could watch me from the swing on the front porch of the old house. It was hard to skate there, and I kept falling down and getting sores on my knees. I screamed so loud when I’d see the iodine coming that they finally decided to let me skate on the wood floor in the slanted hallway. They didn’t seem to care that my skates scratched the floor and made deep marks in the wood.
She also had this to say, “ My fondest memories are when my grandmother and I would go downtown and window shop. I remember the Buckhorn Saloon. There was this stuffed ape in the window. We would walk by there and it would scare the pants off of me!”
Photo: Bartleby’s Books
She recalled in her memoirs that forty years later she was back in San Antonio for an event, and went to visit the old house. She walked up to the front door, knocked, and an elderly man came to the door. After her “minders” explained who she was, he allowed her inside, and the first things she saw upon entering were the skate marks still in the wood floor.
While living in San Antonio, Carol Burnett attended Crockett Elementary School. Her memories of being there was that she was a quiet girl…but a good student. She remembered that she got her start in performing there. “I was in the first grade. I was kind of quiet. I remember the first time I ever performed was at Davy Crockett. We did a mini-version of Pinocchio. I was cast as the Blue Fairy”
Photo…Author
When she was seven, the family moved to Los Angeles….and the rest is Hollywood History !!
Today we fondly remember Carol Burnett, her humble beginnings in San Antonio, and wish her a wonderful birthday !!
As Carol Burnett once said:
“Once you’re a Texan, it doesn’t matter if you left when you were five minutes old, you’re a Texan”
Photo: Country Living
Photo: Wikipedia
ADDITIONAL STORIES:
- Carol Burnett recently discovered that she is related to fellow comic Bill Hader from “Saturday Night Live” and “Barry”
Photo: People
- Carol recently admitted that she starts each day doing crossword puzzles, and is also in a group of other entertainers who all play “Wordle” daily. That group is made up of Charlize Theron, Allison Janney ( The West Wing) and David Crane who co-created “Friends”
- As mentioned, the house that Carol Burnett grew up in is no longer at the original location. Some years ago it was moved further along W. Commerce Street, and is now the home of American Sunrise, the non-profit literacy center founded by Henry and Mary Alice Cisneros, and it is used for special events and after school care.
Photo: Author
Photo: American Sunrise
- At the end of one of her shows, Carol was conducting one of her famous Q&A sessions with the audience and a young girl asked her why she always tugged her ear. She revealed that when she began her tv show, her Nanny asked her to always say “Hello” to her at the end of every program. Carol explained that she couldn’t do that…but she would have a secret sign to say “Hi Nanny…I’m okay and I love you”…and that was a tug of her ear. It became her trademark….and she later revealed that a doctor measured her earlobes, and her left ear lobe had “stretched” slightly, and was a little longer than her right one due to the constant tugging !!
Photo: Good Housekeeping
CREDITS:
“One More Time”…Carol Burnett
MeTV
San Antonio Express News
Yahoo
The Hollywood Reporter
Broadway World
People
Follow My Blog:
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Memories of San Antonio 