Shauna Grant - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Bellflower, California, Colleen Applegate grew up in the small town of Farmington, Minnesota. Her family moved there in 1973, when her father took a managerial position with Central Telephone Company of Minnesota. Colleen was a cheerleader in high school and graduated from Farmington High in 1981. She stayed in the small town, working first as a cashier and then as a repair clerk with the phone company. There, one night in December that year, she consumed a handful of prescription sinus pills in a suicide gesture.

In PBS' Frontline: "Death of a Porn Queen" profile (episode 5.13, U.S. airdate 8 June 1987), her father, Phil Applegate, admitted that he never discussed the suicide attempt with his daughter; he and his wife at the time (Colleen's mother, Karen Applegate) believed their daughter was merely seeking attention. According to the Frontline piece, the entire family had at least one group session at a counseling center during which no one really talked about the situation.

In March 1982, when the news spread about her overdose, Applegate ran away from home with her boyfriend, Mike Marcell, and moved to California. Applegate left behind her parents, a brother, and three sisters.