Early Life and Beauty Pageants

The star was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago in 1940 but moved to California at the age of two for her father Armando's work to support the World War II effort.

She enrolled at San Diego Junior Theater at the age of seven but was dismayed after being cast as a boy in her first play. She later received a scholarship to study theatre at San Diego State College but dropped out to marry childhood sweetheart James Welch when she was 19, although the marriage would be over five years later.

Raquel enjoyed success in local beauty pageants and became a weather girl on the San Diego TV station KFMB thanks to her celebrity in the area.