She played first chair flute in the Batesville High School Band, marched as majorette, and was Drum Majorette her senior year. At the University of Mississippi, she studied acting and philosophy, performed in plays and one opera, and graduated in three years and three outrageously fun-filled summers. The following year she received an M.A. from the University of Illinois, where she learned and honed writing skills.

In New York City she had the great good fortune to wait tables at the Plaza Hotel's Palm Court, to serve drinks and sing at the Gaslight Club with such jazz greats as Ray Nance, and to be cast in Oh! Calcutta!, where she met her future husband, Bill Macy. Together they moved to Los Angeles and forged careers. She has acted in two movies directed by Hal Ashby, Bound for Glory and Lookin' to Get Out, and was