Doris Rollins Cannon, founder and chairman emeritus of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina, has used her unparalleled knowledge to give us our first glimpse into the life of a woman whose movie career spanned 44 years and 61 movies. Never before has the childhood of Ava Gardner been explored as it is in Cannon's book. Ms. Cannon has spent more than 20 years interviewing the people who knew Ava in childhood, including family members, teachers, friends, and neighbors.This is the first book that accurately portrays the early years of this world-renowned star. Other books that have appeared are mainly collections of hearsay. As a former newspaper writer and editor, Ms. Cannon finds the fascinating truth about Gardner's years as a Grabtown Girl.Born in Grabtown, North Carolina, Ava Gardner went from the rural sandhills of eastern North Carolina to become the star of such films as Night of the Iguana, The Sun Also Rises, Showboat, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and The Barefoot Contessa. The youngest of five daughters born to Jonas and Mary Elizabeth Gardner, her relationship with her elder sister Bappie was crucial to her success as a film star. Grabtown Girl shows us Ava as a child, playing with her siblings in the boardinghouses that her parents ran.The Ava Gardner Museum houses one of the world's largest collections of memorabilia dedicated to a film star. Since the early eighties, the museum has attracted thousands who have fallen under the hypnotic charm of Ava Gardner.