Judy was born on her great-grandfathers estate in a one-room boathouse between two ponds. The boat house had later
been turned into a goat house with a fenced-in yard. Later, Dorothy and James McCoin converted it into a little
house to live in.
One day, they had an argument. She ran through the gate, hit her belly, and her baby came "early". (Her
story. Explains why the baby was born before its due date. Ha Ha) They had to call the doctor out to their little
house way out in the country. Doctors did that in those days.
He never was paid for that trip and that delivery. Too bad, because he earned every penny of what he should have
gotten. Dorothy had a really hard delivery and almost died. On top of a genetic trait of a
small pelvic region, she had the narrow birth canal of an unmatured young mother. She
had been 17 for only two weeks! And she was only 5' 2". A tiny thing. The delivery was so destructive to
her insides that she was never able to have another baby and had to have a hysterectomy in her early 20's.
Judy was a very large baby - over 9 pounds. The doctor had a hard time getting the baby out. The baby (me,
Judy) had a knot on top of her head that looked like a darning egg where the head had been squeezed so hard that
it almost permanently caused serious problems. [I think that's why I've always had a memory problem. I think I
had some brain damage during delivery.)
Anyway, Dorothy was in "la-la" land when the doctor asked what the baby's name was. Dorothy's step-grandmother,
VERA Hall Harris, and her Aunt Hazel MARIE Harris Adams, told the doctor ... VERA MARIE.
When Dorothy was aroused enough to know what was going on, it was too late, the doctor said. He only had one birth
certificate. Her baby's name was to be Vera Marie McCoin, whether she liked it or not.
Well, too bad. Dorothy called her baby "JUDY', anyway. So did everybody else except the Carsons and the McCoins.
They called her "MARIE". It wasn't hard answering to both Judy and Marie. After all, everybody always
got mixed up and called her either Dorothy or Idella, anyway. 
Although the Carsons knew about the McCoins, the McCoins knew nothing about the Carsons. It was a pain in the rear
for Judy Marie to keep the stories straight. One thing's for sure though, she NEVER felt like "Vera Marie
McCoin". She always felt that her name should have been "Judith Ann Carson", the name her mother
wanted to name her in the first place. She did become accustomed to "Judy Marie" though and liked the
name. She just never had a last name that felt like "hers". She always wanted to be known as Judy Marie
Carson.
Dorothy used to laugh when she'd remember she'd never paid that doctor who drove all the way out into the country
to delivery her baby. She said it was her revenge for misnaming her baby, and she would give that evil laugh of
hers.
WHY JUDY?
When asked, Dorothy said she just liked the name. It was a popular name in those days. There was JUDY CANOVA, JUDY
GARLAND, & JUDY HOLIDAY - just to name a few of the movie stars named "Judy".
Judy did like her name and was ashamed for anybody to know her real and UGLY name of "Vera". The only
thing that ever bothered her was when the butcher, Charlie, who she adored, would tease her and call her "Judy
Canova". Judy Canova was a comedienne, who little Judy thought was stupid. She didn't like being associated
with her, but was too shy to say anything about it. She wouldn't DREAM of "talking back" to an adult
in those days. Plus, she did not want to hurt the man's feelings. He was so nice to her, so nice in a world that
gave her very little love or ratification.