I was born in Hempstead, Long Island, New York, on April 18, 1938. My mother was an immigrant that came from Russia, as a child, around 1926. My father was a 2nd generation Sicilian and Swedish mixture. Making me ½ Russian, ¼ Swedish & ¼ Sicilian. What a combination!!! That explains the big hips. HA!

In 1945, after the war, my parents moved to Calif. for the Western life. They settled in Burbank, Calif., where I was able to finish out my school years from the 4th grade on. I have two brothers that were younger than me. Paul graduated JBHS in 1960 and brother Don graduated in 1968. (Don passed away in 1990 which is another long story)

After high school I went to Valley Jr. College for (1) year then took a year of Burbank Business School. 1957 I started work at Lockheed, trying to escape a very strict Italian father, and met my 1st husband, Wayne Trost. He was the brother-in-law of someone that I worked with there. We were married in 1958 and went back to Illinois for him to finish his last year of College to become an Industrial Arts Teacher. We came back to Calif. and settled in Van Nuys. We had (2) sons together, Ronald born in 1959 and Dana born in 1962. Ron is a Special Effects Coordinator in the Motion Picture Business and Dana is ?????

It's hard to believe my children are over 40 now. I feel only 40 myself.…..How did this happen??? From my two sons I have 8 grandchildren. (3 girls & 5 boys) Ranging from 1 yr. to 29 years of age. Brandon is a Cinematographer now and Sarah is a clothes designer for The Motion Picture Business.  Jason is an Actor/Writer/Director.  The others haven't finished school yet.

At 23 years of age I had the misfortune of losing my parents. My father died of a heart attack at the age of 49 and my mother died 10 months later at the same age. She was a murder victim. (Long story) At this time I had a 3 year old, 3 month old and now two brothers to raise; 12 & 17. Needless to say, my twenties were a blur….

Even though it was a struggle to get thru my twenties, I managed to get everyone raised to school age despite a verbally abusive husband. A nerves breakdown was on the horizon for me and when I reached 30 I crashed. I was able to get on my feet and come up fighting. I got a job in the Motion Picture Business as an extra and then moved on to Stunts. I was Stunt doubled for a number of actresses such as Janet Leigh, Barbara Eden and Angie Dickenson. After working for several years I was able to save enough money to escape my marriage of 17 years, get a divorce, and go off on my own in 1975.

In 1976 I met Scott Maitland, who was an Asst. Director at the time, in the Motion Picture Business. (Now a Production Manager/Line Producer) Being Canadian born he had the best of two worlds, he was about to marry an American Citizen. After only about 10 months of courting we got married. We just celebrated our 25th Anniversary last March 7th. (From 1975-1995 I worked as a Production Coordinator with him) In 1995 my Aorta Heart Valve was about to collapse when I was in the Czech Republic working a show. (A result of having Rheumatic Fever as a child) When I got home I had open heart surgery replacing it with a cow's valve. That ended my very stressful career in film work. We moved out of Burbank in 1980, to the Gold Country in Northern Calif. by Sonora. I opened a Yarn Shop and had this for 5 years in conjunction with being a Production Coordinator. Found it wasn't working because I couldn't be in two places at once. After 18 years in Murphys, CA, we moved to Oregon on a beautiful 20 acre ranch paradise just 4 miles North of Eugene, (1) mile East of I-5. (This is where we are now. )

I raised Alpacas for 5 years and now only board them. This year I became an Alpaca Fleece Judge, judging Internationally and within the U.S. This will be the fiber of the future. It's like cashmere.

I wanted to make a difference in this life so have two goals that I'm finishing up. Before our 50th Class Reunion I want to find as many Classmates as possible, that have been on the missing list, (207 found and 7 more to go) and with that, bring our class close together as it once was. The other one is to finish my 5 book series of children's books, starring my 4 Westie Dogs. The 1st one is just about ready to go to press with the 4 others to follow within the next two years.



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"THE TALES OF
HEATHER & MAC DUFF."

I've come from living above a CHICKEN COOP to a PARADISE that only few experience. Thank you GOD for giving me what you have. My ups and downs have made me what I am today. A positive thinker with ignorance to failure. I still have NO GREY HAIR, thanks to Clariol, so I guess I'M ONLY AS OLD AS I FEEL.