THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The one and only autobiography by the iconic Lucille Ball, hailed by TV Guide as the “#1 Greatest TV Star of All Time. ” Love, Lucy is the valentine Lucille Ball left for her fans—a warm, wise, and witty memoir written by Lucy herself. The legendary star of the classic sitcom  I Love Lucy  was at the pinnacle of her success when she sat down to record the story of her life. No comedienne had made America laugh so hard, no television actress had made the leap from radio and B movies to become one of the world's best-loved performers. This is her story—in her own words. The story of the ingenue from Jamestown, New York, determined to go to Broadway, destined to make a big splash, bound to marry her Valentino, Desi Arnaz. In her own inimitable style, she tells of their life together—both storybook and turbulent; intimate memories of their children and friends; wonderful backstage anecdotes; the empire they founded; the dissolution of their marriage. And, with a heartfelt happy ending, her enduring marriage to Gary Morton. Here is the lost manuscript that her fans and loved ones will treasure. Here is the laughter. Here is the life. Here’s Lucy... “The comic actress in her own words...intensley moving.”— San Francisco Chronicle “Filled with light and laughter.”— New York Times Book Review Praise for Love, Lucy “We watched her, we loved her...Lucy fans will find the book fascinating.”— Detroit News “Her story is one of triumph...a winner.”— New York Newsday “A warm, conversational memoir...Lucille Ball died in 1989, so it's a shock to hear the gleeful, guiless voice of ‘America’s favorite redhead’ ring out with such vitality in an autobiography.”— The New York Times Book Review “An extremely interesting memoir...It’s a way to discover first hand what was most important to Lucy—like Desi, her mother, her family and kids, the career, her mentor Lela Rogers—and what was not. She was the geniuine article. So is this book.”—Robert Osborne, The Hollywood Reporter Lucille Ball (1911–1989) was a beloved actress, comedienne, and Hollywood icon. Best known for her eponymous role in the hit 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy , she also starred in radio shows and appeared in dozens of films and television shows throughout her career, winning numerous awards, including multiple Emmy Awards, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, and in 1987 the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy from the American Comedy Awards. Chapter One I'm a Leo. I was born on a Sunday, August 6, 1911. Unfortunately, everybody knows my birth date because I told the truth when I first came to Hollywood. I grew up not on the sidewalks of New York City, as some people think, but in the beautiful resort area of Lake Chautauqua, New York, near the green, wooded Allegheny wilderness. I used to say I was born in Butte, Montana-I thought it sounded more glamorous than western New York. I was conceived in Montana when my father was working for his father as a lineman at Independent Telephone Company in Anaconda. But I was born in my grandparents' apartment on Stewart Street in Jamestown, New York, where I was delivered by my grandmother Flora Belle Hunt. My mother, DesirŽe Hunt-or DeDe, as we call her-was of French-English descent, with a touch of Irish from her father's side that showed in her porcelain-fine English complexion and auburn hair. DeDe was so talented musically that she could have been a fine concert pianist, but at seventeen she met and married a local Jamestown boy, my father, Henry Durrell Ball. As soon after my birth as my mother could travel, she insisted we return to Montana and Henry. Henry was tall, with intense, penetrating blue eyes. He was a wonderful guy, according to everyone who knew him: full of fun, with a good comic sense. DeDe says I got my sense of humor from him. People are always asking me if Ball is my real name. As a young model, I tried being Diane Belmont for a while, but that kind of phony elegance wasn't for me. All I know about the Ball side of my family is that they are descended from an English family that owned houses and lands in Herefordshire in some early period. There were Ball mariners, hunters, priests, and barons, but, it appears, no actors. As for the American branch of the family, there was some Ball blood in George Washington; his mother's maiden name was Mary Ball. Ball family records place them in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and I found gravestones of several Balls on Arthur Godfrey's farm in Virginia when we visited him last spring. For almost four years I was an only child. My young parents showered me with affection. I was at the center of the stage; life was a lark. DeDe tried dressing me in ribbons and bows, but I rebelled, never being the prissy doll type. My father roughhoused with me as he might with a boy, tossing me to the ceiling and catching me a few feet from the floor, and giving me piggybacks. I screame