- Husband Scott Paxton was 18 years her junior. They were married for 30 years before her death.
- Although she played Suzy Parker's daughter in Number 12 Looks Just Like You (1964), she was only two years her junior in real life.
- Both she and her To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) co-star, Brock Peters, were involved in the civil rights movement and NAACP.
- Born in Cincinnati, she was raised in Highlands, North Carolina.
- Three adopted children (siblings abandoned by their mother) with Horne: Kimberly and William Horne, Michael G. Paxton.
- Upon her death, she was cremated and her ashes returned to her family.
- She was a lifelong liberal Democrat.
- Turned her North Carolina theater space over to the local Barack Obama presidential campaign.
- Studied drama at the University of Tennessee.
- Collins' Instant Theatre Company produced her script "Papa's Angels" at The Highlands Studio for the Arts in December of 1987. The script went through years of extensive re-writes before it became a full length play. It won the "Best Play of the Year Award" at The Grand Olde Players Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska two years running before Samuel French, Inc. published the play. The book, which is based on the play, was published by New World Library. CBS optioned "Papa's Angels" for a television movie, Papa's Angels (2000), starring Scott Bakula and Cynthia Nixon, which aired in December of 2000.
- First husband Walter Beakel directed her and Ben Piazza in a 1961 presentation of "Romeo and Juliet".
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content