Christenings

Mitzi was the name that was planned for me. Then Mitzi Gaynor made a comeback. My parents did not want it to look like they were naming me after a movie star. So Mary Jo it was. A name that seemed like a curse to me as a child – nobody back then had double-barreled names. Until “Petticoat Junction.” Then I got Billy-, Bobby-, and Betty-Jo. Either that or people would take my sister’s name and tack it on, renaming me Maryanne. More often than not I get christened the more common, Mary-Jane. Nobody who knows me shortens it to Mary.