[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Addams Family, an offbeat television comedy about the ghouls next door, premiered on Sept. 20, 1964 with a motion-picture actress from the Texas Panhandle in the role of Morticia.

Carolyn Sue Jones was born into an unhappy Amarillo home in April 1930. Four years later, the head of the house walked out forcing his abandoned wife and two little girls to move in with her parents.

Carolyn inherited an almost fanatical fascination with the movies from her mother, who named her da...