Kelly Spence - Ellen DeGeneres: Television Comedian and Gay Rights Activist

A teenage Ellen DeGeneres poses with her high school tennis team.

W hen Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born on January 26, 1958, her parents no doubt believed she was a special child. Just how special DeGeneres was, however, they would not realize until later. Indeed, based on their own humble backgroundsher father, Elliott, sold insurance and her mother, Betty, worked as an administrative assistant there was no reason to believe that DeGeneres would grow up to become one of Americas most beloved (and, for a time, controversial) comics!

Even as Ellen DeGeneres grew older, there was little to suggest that she would grow up to be a famous comedian, least of all to DeGeneres herself. I was obsessed with animals, and I really thought Id join the Peace Corps or go to Africa and study apes or be a veterinarian, DeGeneres recalls. Still, DeGeneres would watch comics on The Ed Sullivan Show with fascination as a young child. [But it] must have been a subconscious thing because at that time I had no idea that I wanted to be a comic, she wrote.

If anyone in the family were to achieve such a feat, it was widely assumed it would be DeGeneress brother Vance. Four years her senior, Vance was considered the humorous one in the family.

Ellen's Royal Roots

Although DeGeneres's immediate family was of modest means, her family tree boasts some very wealthy branches. In 2011, thanks to a genealogical search, DeGeneres discovered that she is fifteenth cousins with Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge and future queen of England. The two women share a common ancestor: Thomas Fairfax. As DeGeneres quipped in her book Seriously ... I'm Kidding, this revelation "makes it a lot less weird that I have everyone who works for me call me Your Royal Highness." Based on this newfound information, a cheeky DeGeneres lobbied hard for an invitation to the Royal Wedding, but, sadly, she was rebuffed.

Ellen DeGeneres spent her early child in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, noted for its aboveground cemeteries. According to Kathleen Tracy, author of Ellen: The Real Story of Ellen DeGeneres, her father Elliott was steady and reliable, someone who could be considered a solid family man. Elliott was also a devout Christian Scientist.

In her book My Point ... And I Do Have One, DeGeneres writes,

I was raised a Christian Scientist and was taught to believe that we could heal our bodies through prayer, that sickness was an illusion that could be defeated by the power of the spirit. Since my family were Christian Scientists, we probably saved a bundle: no aspirin, no medicine at all. She went on to quip, I didnt take my first aspirin until I was in my teens and even now I feel a twinge of guilt when I go to the pharmacy.

When DeGeneres was in the third grade, her family moved to Audubon Park, a New Orleans neighborhood about five miles north of the famous French Quarter. But they would not stay put for long. Indeed, the DeGeneres family moved several times during Ellens childhoodand that often meant she was forced to start over at a new school. DeGeneres recalls, When I was a kid, we moved around so much ... It was weird being the new kid in school all the time. This took its toll. I always wanted people to like me, she said. I wanted to feel like I belonged. Given her seemingly permanent outsider status, its no surprise that DeGeneres did not care for school.

DeGeneres disliked school for another reason, too: She had a short attention span and couldnt pretend to be interested in subjects that werent appealing to her. There was no doubt DeGeneres was keenly intelligent. But when it came to school, she lacked the motivation to excel.

In 1972, after twenty years of marriage, DeGeneress parents got a divorce. DeGeneres, then fourteen years old, moved with her mother back to Metairie, although she still saw her father on a regular basis. Her beloved brother Vance, who was eighteen and already working a job at a radio station, moved out on his own.