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I flunked out of cheerleading in high school, so I decided to become the mascot: a mule. The
costume was a burlap sack with a mule head, and my friend and I came up with a routine to
perform at the halftime show so we could still go on the bus trips. So, I guess the lesson there was
that if something threw me a curve ball, I still came up with a way to go on that bus trip.
That really started me in a process of not being stopped by many things, and having an attitude
that I could do whatever I wanted. I didn't think I needed a college degree. And hear me out,
because back then you didn't [need one]. I think even today, if you have talent and drive, you can
get anywhere you want to just on those two things. I know there are a lot of academics who will
dispute that, but I can tell you right now, I'm living proof of it.
During my junior year [of high school] at Alamo Heights, I met this guy, and I had never really had
a boyfriend before. So, we went steady and then married the next year after we graduated, and he
moved me to Hereford, Texas. But after living out in Hereford, I got a divorce - that was my first
divorce - and I moved back to San Antonio and worked there for 2 years.
I was doing secretarial work for Texas State Optical. I remember my shorthanded typing teacher
in high school telling me to never disgrace her name by applying to be a secretary, but that's what
I wanted to be. If someone threw cold water on me, I just didn't listen. It didn't matter, because to
me, it was funny. Then, I moved from San Antonio to Dallas and married Ken Humphreys, whose
mother was the vice president of Texas Bank and Trust. So, I worked as a secretary at the bank
once I was in Dallas. I was a secretary for about 14 years.
Randle: How did you transition from working as a secretary to an actress and entertainer?
Humphreys: Well, I'd really been a performer all of my life. I'd been singing from the time I was a
little girl to the time I graduated high school. I was a swing band vocalist, and I sang with dance
bands and orchestras in the '50s in San Antonio. So, I had that background of performing. I didn't
take speech or anything. I just had the talent. If somebody asked me if I could do something, I said,
"Yes."
So, when I moved to Dallas to work at Texas Bank and Trust, they had a show at the Adolphus
Hotel called "Bottoms Up," which was sort of a Laugh-In show like they used to have on Rowan &
Martin (1967 - 1973). So, I went down and auditioned and I got in that show, and that really
changed my whole life. Everything sort of took off from that place. I started to get paid $300 a
month to go out on stage and perform. I was doing the bank job during the day, and then six
nights a week I would go out and perform, and it was the best.
Then, a guy named Bob Stanford from Seven-11 called me. He was the advertising director there,
and he told me, "We hear you're a singer," and told me to come audition for the Southland show.
He told me it was a musical they were going to take on the road all the way from New York City to
Los Angeles. I told him I was looking for a full-time gig, and when he told me it paid $1,500, I was
sold. I used my first paycheck from them to go and buy a rabbit fur coat at Neiman Marcus.
