Early Life
She was born Estelle Caro Eggleston on October 1, 1938 in Yazoo City, Mississippi, the only child of Estelle (née Caro) and Thomas Ellett Eggleston. Her great-grandfather was Henry Clay Tyler, an early settler from Boston and a jeweler who gave the Yazoo City courthouse cupola its clock.
When Stevens was four years old, her parents, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where the family lived at 3528 Carrington Road near Highland Street. Her father worked as an insurance salesman with offices in the Sterick Building, and her mother worked as a nurse. Young Estelle attended St. Anne's Catholic School on Highland Street and Sacred Heart School on Jefferson Avenue, finishing her last year of high school in 1955 at Memphis Evening School at Memphis Tech High School.
At the age of 16, she married electrician Noble Herman Stephens on December 1, 1954, probably in Memphis. They had one child (her only child), actor/producer Andrew Stevens. Although the couple divorced in 1957, both she and her son retained a variation of Noble's surname as their own professional surnames. While studying medicine at Memphis State College, she became interested in acting and modeling. While performing in a college production of Bus Stop, Stevens was discovered and offered a contract with 20th Century Fox.
Read more about this topic: Stella Stevens
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