Forever An Angel

STORY BY: JOY SAXTON

It was the summer of 1962. Friends of a young Farrah Fawcett gathered at the Houston home of her aunt and uncle for a slumber party. Late that night, while in pajamas, the girls heard a noise. As they tiptoed into the kitchen, a neighborhood boy with a fist full of jewelry ran by. Fawcett jumped into action, cornering the thief and saving the jewels. Jan Alexander, a childhood friend from Corpus Christi, shared the story of that night quoting, “The police were called and the jewelry was returned but I still think about Farrah’s reaction. That fighting spirit she exhibited would carry her to far better acting roles and through her final struggle with cancer.” That was the woman we would all grow to adore.

America fell in love with the Texas-born beauty when she kicked off her career in Charlie’s Angels thanks to a head full of gorgeous blond hair and radiant smile that would later become her trademark. Fawcett eventually made the decision to leave the show after a short stint to pursue more challenging roles.  She revealed to Austinite and life long friend, Karen Spellings, “Most people act and become famous. I got famous and had to learn to act.”

Fawcett developed her acting skills by working in foreign films, persevering in spite of critics harsh reviews and courageously took on the lead in Extremities, a dramatic thriller about a woman who takes revenge on the intruder that attempted to rape her. The role won critical acclaim and opened doors to work in films like The Burning Bed and The Apostle, garnering Fawcett award nominations for a Golden Globe and two Emmys. 

She and my mother, photographer Gray Hawn, were great friends, and I was able to spend time with Farrah growing up. To the world she was an icon while I admired her most for being an intelligent and savvy businesswoman who effortlessly juggled the real-life roles of mother, daughter, artist and friend. I saw how Fawcett’s touching relationship with her parents, especially her mother, revealed the down-to-earth woman behind the famous golden locks. I will never forget a memorable family dinner in Texas when she turned to my mother and said, “It’s not easy being Farrah Fawcett.” She wasn’t being coy, just honest. She’d become a persona that was larger than life.

My mother once told me, “Your life becomes very hard when you become a celebrity, it takes courage to be famous. You have to do things you don’t want to and the public demands that you’re always ‘on’.” For Fawcett, public speaking was always particularly difficult. After making a speech for her induction at the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards in 2003, she expressed her overwhelming anxiety backstage. Fawcett was great with a script, but spontaneity did not come naturally for her. Everyone there that night will remember when she called her father, James, via cell phone from the stage to share the moment with him.

Throughout her life, Fawcett enjoyed painting and drawing and even studied sculpture with Charles Umlauf, professor emeritus, at the University of Texas at Austin for many years. “Ms. Fawcett occasionally modeled for her fellow classmates in Umlauf’s classes,” recalls Nelie Plourde, Executive Director and Curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Musuem. “He sculpted several head studies of the young actress, three of which are in Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum collection and another three or four of which are in her own collection.” My mother is a world-renowned photographer and artist, so they always shared that connection. When we attended one of Fawcett’s art shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she was brimming with nervous excitement and I witnessed just how much her work meant to her. 

What I admired most about Fawcett is that she never stopped creating. Even in her last days, she was participating in a documentary, now recognized for an Emmy, which chronicled her painful journey, hoping to inspire other cancer patients. Fawcett listened to her heart and lived life to the fullest, whether that meant performing on stage, creating art, getting her aunt’s jewelry back in a botched burglary or fighting cancer. She was a powerful woman, she gave everything she had; she was a gift to the world. After the legendary icon passed away, my mother said, “Now Farrah has her wings.” On earth, she remains forever immortalized, as a true, Texas angel.

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