Did you know that Jane Fonda had a black daughter? Most people don’t. But she does, Mary Williams. Jane adopted Mary as a child, who grew up alongside her two biological children. In a new book, “The Lost Daughter,” Mary talks about her relationship with Jane and how it grew from friendship to full-fledged adoption.
Mary met Jane at a summer camp that was run by she and her ex-husband Tom Hayden. Fonda says that she knew Mary was special from the very beginning.
“When she showed up at camp … you could tell that she was a special person. And she came back for several years. And then she didn’t come back …,” Fonda said on“Good Morning America.”
Williams lived in Oakland, in a tough neighborhood. She was the victim of s-xual assault at the age of 14, which led Fonda to make an offer for her to come and live with her. But there was a condition, she had to get her grades up.
Google Books review:
“I always hoped [Mary Williams] would tell her incredible story. She's a writer of uncommon clarity and humor, and the arrival of her memoir is cause for celebration." —Dave Eggers, author of What is the What
As she grew up in 1970s Oakland, California, role models for Mary Williams were few and far between: her father was often in prison, her older sister was a teenage prostitute, and her hot-tempered mother struggled to raise six children alone. For all Mary knew, she was heading down a similar path.
But her life changed when she met Jane Fonda at summer camp in 1978. Fonda grew attached to the bright girl and eventually invited her to become part of her family, becoming the mother Mary never had. Mary’s life since has been one of adventure and opportunity—from hiking the Appalachian Trail solo, working with the Lost Boys of Sudan, and living in the frozen reaches of Antarctica. Her most courageous trip, though, involved returning to Oakland and reconnecting with her biological mother and family, many of whom she hadn’t seen since the day she left home. The Lost Daughter is a chronicle of her journey back in time, an exploration of fractured family bonds, and a moving epic of self-discovery.
