At the age of 3, Betty Lou Dunevant contracted the measles and lost her the majority of her hearing due to a high fever. She taught herself how to read lips in order to communicate and decided at the age of 15 that she was over school and dropped out. That same year, 1952, she met and married her first husband. Over the next 31 years, Betty Lou married several other men and at one point, seemed to be the most unlucky woman in town, after two of her husbands disappeared mysteriously.