Early Life
Thomas was born Oliva R. Duffy, though sometimes she claimed her birth name was Oliveretta Elaine Duffy. She was born into a working class Irish American family in the Pittsburgh-area steel town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Her father, James Duffy, a steelworker, died in 1906. She was forced to leave school at age 15 to help support her mother and two younger brothers, James and William. She sold gingham at Joseph Horne's department store for $2.75 per week. In April 1911, aged 16, she married Bernard Krugh Thomas in McKees Rocks, a small mill town. During the two-year marriage, she reportedly worked as a clerk in Kaufmann's department store in Pittsburgh. After her divorce, she went to stay with a family member in New York City, where she found work in a Harlem department store.
In 1914, after answering a newspaper ad, she won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City", a contest run by the celebrated commercial artist Howard Chandler Christy. She then modeled for artist Harrison Fisher and eventually landed on the cover of Saturday Evening Post.
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