Debbie Reynolds, born Mary Frances Reynolds, was born in El Paso, Texas on April 1, 1932. Her mother, Maxine, was a homemaker and her father, Raymond, worked for the railroad. Debbie was born during The Great Depression, and she remembers that they were poor, but always had what they needed. "We slept in the park before we had a house, and eventually we shared a home — my parents, my grandparents and five uncles, my family, all of us — on White Oaks Street by Magnolia Street near the railroad," Reynolds told the El Paso Times in a 2010 interview.
"Those were hard times, but I loved living there. I would walk on the tracks, hopping, skipping. I enjoyed the neighborhood, I enjoyed El Paso," she said. She felt lucky, but life in that time period was a struggle. When she was seven years old, her dad got transferred to California and the Reynolds family left El Paso for Burbank. Debbie, who was called Frannie as a child, didn't return to El Paso for a long time. In fact, other than her grandfather's funeral in the 1950's, the actress and singer didn't go back to her hometown until 2010, when she performed at the Plaza Classic Film Festival. Unfortunately, she never made it back again before her death.
