The Life and Times of Lucille Ball"Love yourself first and everything else will fall into line. You really have to love yourself to achieve anything in this world." That quote was one that Lucille Ball lived by throughout her twisted and turbulent life. As one of the most recognized faces in the world, she is known to millions simply as Lucy. She went from waitress and shop assistant to model, to Goldwyn Girl, to radio clown to an unlikely female lead in a groundbreaking sitcom that is still seen in regular reruns more than 40 years after the series ended. In addition to being a television legend, she was the first female president of a major Hollywood studio, a studio she co-founded. This is the life and times of Lucille Ball. The eldest daughter of two children, Lucille Désirée Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in the small town of Celoron, New York, a suburb of Jamestown. Her father, Henry Durrell Ball, was a telephone lineman for the Bell Company, while her mother, Désirée (DeDe) Hunt, was often described as a lively and energetic young woman. While DeDe was pregnant with her second child, Frederick, Henry contracted typhoid fever and died in February 1915. During her childhood, Ball and her brother lived with their independent mother, grandmother, and grandfather, Fred Hunt, who was an eccentric socialist who liked the theater. . He often took the family to local vaudeville shows (plays that used music, costumes and dialogue featuring comedy, juggling, magic, clowning, acrobatics, singing, mime and dancing) and encouraged young Lucy to take part in both his plays and those schools. . ... middle of paper ...... When asked if she considered herself lucky to have had such a great career, Lucille Ball responded: “Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never counted on it and I'm afraid of people who do that. Luck for me is something else: hard work and understanding what is an opportunity and what isn't."Bibliography"Ball, Lucille (Désirée)." Biography.com. 2001. A&E. September 13, 2003. Lowe, Denise. Women and American Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: ABC-CLIO, December 1, 1999.Magill, Frank N., ed. Great Lives from History: American Women Series. vol. 1. Salem: Salem Pr, January 1995.