Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest and third child of Anna Bell (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. She was of English, French Huguenot, Swedish, and Irish ancestry. Crawford's elder siblings were sister Daisy LeSueur, who died before Lucille's birth, and brother Hal LeSueur. Crawford's father abandoned the family a few months before her birth, reappearing later in 1930 in Abilene, Texas, reportedly working as a construction laborer.

In 1970, Crawford was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award by John Wayne at the Golden Globes, which was telecast from the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. She also spoke at Stephens College, where she had been a student for two months in 1922.  Crawford published her autobiography, A Portrait of Joan, co-written with Jane Kesner Ardmore, in 1962 through Doubleday. Crawford's next book, My Way of Life, was published in 1971 by Simon & Schuster. Those expecting a racy tell-all were disappointed, although Crawford's meticulous ways were revealed in her advice on grooming, wardrobe, exercise, and even food storage. Upon her death there were found in her apartment photographs of John F. Kennedy, for whom she had voted for in the 1960 presidential election.  In September 1973, Crawford moved from apartment 22-G to a smaller apartment next door (22-H) at the Imperial House, 150 East 69th Street. Her last public appearance was made on September 23, 1974, at a party honoring her old friend Rosalind Russell at New York's Rainbow Room. Russell was suffering from breast cancer and arthritis at the time. When Crawford saw the unflattering photos that appeared in the papers the next day, she said, "If that's how I look, then they won't see me anymore." Crawford cancelled all public appearances, began declining interviews and left her apartment less and less. Dental-related issues, including surgery which left her needing round-the-clock nursing care, plagued her from 1972 until mid-1975. While on antibiotics for this problem in October 1974, her drinking caused her to pass out, slip and strike her face. The incident scared her enough to give up drinking, although she insisted that it was because of her return to Christian Science. The incident is recorded in a series of letters sent to her insurance company held in the stack files on the 3rd floor of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; it is also documented by Carl Johnnes in his biography of the actress, Joan Crawford: The Last Years.  When it came to personal politics, Crawford aligned herself as a Democrat who greatly supported, and admired, the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was once noted as saying: "The Democratic party is one that I've always observed. I have struggled greatly in life from the day I was born and I am honored to be a part of something that focuses on working class citizens and molds them into a proud specimen. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Kennedy have done so much in that regard for the two generations they've won over during their career course."

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