"Just call me Cupid!"
By Dora Albert

"Why could you call me cupid?" Kathy Garver, the petite, auburn-haired, brown-eyed teenager in Family Affair smiled and dimpled as she confessed, "I love pairing up people. When I was going to high shcool and to UCLA, I used to match up people who would enjoy each other's company. Shoot, I love to play Cupid. One of the couples I brought together is pinned; another of my couples has been going together for six months."

Born in Long Beach, California, Kathy is the daughter Hayes G. Garver, an architect, and the former Rosemary Schmoker. She has two older brothers, Lance and Buddy, and a married sister, Beverly.

When I met her for lunch recently, she was wearing a maroon wool dress that was just above the knees. With her hair falling loose just below her shoulders, she looked just about 15, the age of the girl she plays on the show. Actually, Kathy is 18, and is blessed with common sense way beyond her years.

Smiling reflectively, she continued her reminiscences. "Girls in school, and sometimes boys, too, used to call me and say, 'Gee, I haven't a date for Saturday night. Do you know anyone I might like?' Then I'd ask around, or ask my date if he had a boy friend who could take out the girl that had no escort.

"I'm very honest in playing cupid. Suppose a girl who wasn't very pretty asked me to find a date for her. I wouldn't think of pretending to a boy that she was extremely good looking. Instead I'd say, 'Well, she's only medium looking, not beautiful, but she's good company. You'll have fun on a date.'"

Kathy is very smart in matching up girls and boys who will enjoy each other's company. She may match up a good talker with a good listener, or two people who both love music or sports, or who share a love for poetry. If a boy is very shy, she'll match him up with a girl who is outgoing and can make him feel comfortable.

Asked about miniskirts, she glanced at her own skirt and said with a laugh, "this is about as mini as I get. I like mod fashions, if they're not too extreme. But I think most miniskirts are awfully cold!"

Kathy is so sensible that her girlfriends like to come to her for ad vice when they have love problems. She's a regular junior "Dear Abby."

At school one day, a girl told her that she had met a boy she liked very much and that he had dated her once, but she hadn't seen him since.

"Well," said Kathy, "he may be busy studying for a while, but if you're really interested, why don't you walk by where he is likely to be. You might walk by him at the Coop." (That's the nickname for a restaurant at UCLA.)

The girl followed her advice. Just seeing the girl reminded the boy of her. And he asked for another date, as Kathy had suspected he would.

Then there was the girl in Los Angeles whose boyfriend had gone to San Francisco. Weeks passed by, and she didn't hear from him. They had been quite close before he had left, and she was worried. She asked Kathy what she should do.

"Call him," urged Kathy and the girl did.

"It turned out fine. Usually I don't believe in girls calling boys, but this girl was really worried, fearful that something might have happened to her boyfrined. Actually, he had been ill, was recuperating, and was really glad to hear from her."

Kathy says she has no real problems in managing her own romantic life. She dates five boys, but claims she isn't in love with any of them. "I tell all of them that I'm going out just for fun, that I'm not serious. Before I could get serious, I would have to know a boy for a long time.

Each of the boys I date has different qualities I admire. Once I went steady for a week; once I went steady for two weeks. But I really have too much fun going out with a whole bunch of different boys to go steady."

Normally Kathy, when she's out on a date, doesn't discuss any of the other boys she dates. However, once in a while, she will ask advice from a boy about a problem.

"There was one boy--we weren't getting along well. He really liked me, but I wanted to stop seeing him. I was sort of scared of hurting his feelings by saying that I wanted to stop seeing him. I asked another boy what I should do. He told me to come right out with it. I did, and the boy whom I spoke so frankly (sic) said, 'I'm glad you told me now.' We had been going out for about four months." If Kathy had put off telling him that they weren't right for each other, he might have gotten hurt far worse than he was by her honesty.

Dating five boys on different occasions, Kathy sometimes has difficulty keeping her dates straight.

"Sometimes I forget and make two dates for one night. My mother gets so upset when I do. She says, 'Kathy, how could you do that?'"

Kathy smiled apologetically. "I guess the trouble is that when it's a social date, I don't write it down. Sometimes, a boys say, 'Will you see me sat night?' and I say, 'Yes' without thinking. Later I may remember that I promised to see another boy that particular night.

"Usually the boy calls back to find out what time he should call for me. Then I tell him that I had forgotten the previous date. I tell the second boy who asked me for Saturday night, 'Maybe I can see you next week, or in a few days.' Usually they're appeased by that."

She says she has never had any trouble with boys who wanted to become over-affectionate. Most boys are very protective with Kathy.

"She's so wholesome looking, she invites wholesomeness," explained a friend. "Men take a look at a certain type of girl, and it would never occur to them to get fresh. Most girls who find men getting fresh invite that attidute by their behavior."

"I never worry about boys getting fresh," said Kathy, "and I've never had that experience." She smiled and said, "I have two older brothers and when boys come to visit, they give them the evil eye." There was a twinkle in her own eye as she said it. "Before I go out with anyone, they ask me all about his background and they ask me if I'm double-dating with another couple. They also tell me, just before I leave, 'be sure to get home early, Kathy.'"

Many girls are afraid of blind dates. Not Kathy.

"I love blind dates," she said, "they can be really fun. The blind dates I've gone on have always been set up by some friend who had an idea of the kind of boy I'd like. Even when the boys were not good looking, they usually had appealing personalities."

To appeal to boys, Kathy doesn't believe a girl should pretend an interest in something she doesn't like, say moutntain climbing if she loathes heights.

Her candid eyes looked right into mine as she said, "I think a girl should be completely natural, completely herself. Everybody always has something to offer. If a girl is natural, a boy will be attracted to her in the most beautiful way. He'll be atttracted to the assets she has; not qualities she has pretended to have. A friendship based on naturalness will last much longer.

Sure, I believe in putting your best foot forward, but I think girl should be sure it's her own foot, not someone else's."

Kathy says that many segments of Family Affair come close to her own life, as when the girl she plays in the show gets a deep crush on her psychology teacher.

"It happened to me with a darling English teacher. I thought every word he spoke was golden and did my best to emulate him.

"I've had a lot of crushes, like most teenagers, but I've never really been deeply in love. The closest I ever came to it was about two years ago. I was a cheerleader, and he was on the football team when I was going to Pacific High School in San Bernardino. The boy, Bob, is now going to Harvard, and I haven't seen him for a year.

"Someday I'd like to fall really in love. But I don't want to get married for the next two or three years. I think I'm too young. Before I get married, I'd like to feel more responsible and independent. I still have to learn to do certain things well, like baking cookies."

A smile lit up her face as she said, "I did bake cookies for everyone I know at the studio for Christmas, and they said they were good. I know a little about cooking, but not enough. I can prepare a salad and broil a steak or make eggs or spaghetti, but I've never cooked dinner for any individual boy I've dated. However, shortly before Christmas, a girl friend and I threw a spaghetti feed in my apartment. We entertained about 20 people, and we served salad, spaghetti and garlic bread."

Kathy's apartment is on the second floor of an apartment building in Baldwin Hills; her parents, who own the apartment house, have an apartment on the first floor. When boys come to visit Kathy, they are never invited to her apartment, unless it's for a party. Normally, they call at her parents apartment, where Kathy joins them.

One of Kathy's most treasured gifts was given her by a boyfriend recently--a locket in the shape of a heart. The boy who gave her this charming gift is one of her five boyfriends. But when I asked if she might not be in love with him she said she wasn't.

"When I fall in love I think I'll know it and be happy and excited when I'm going to see him. Now when I'm going to see a boy I know, I get medium excited, but when I'm in love, I'll be really excited!"

What sort of man will she finally marry?

"He'll be intelligent," she says, "and have a sense of humor. I think he'll be tall, with blond hair and blue eyes but his personality will be more important than his looks."

There is a lovely friendship between Kathy and other members of the cast of Family Affair. She never dates anyone over 25, but older men like Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot treat her with protective friendliness. When Sebastian was ill, she visited him in the hospital, bringing with her a gift of a single rose in a bud vase. His room was filled with flowers, but he appreciated Kathy's thoughtful gesture. "I though he might be lonesome in the hospital," Kathy told me.

Later, when antoher friend was visiting Sebastian, he asked, "How's that darling girl on my show?" Thinking he meant the eight-year-old, the friend said, "Oh, she lost another tooth."

"Not that girl," said Sebastian. "Kathy's the one I mean."

As you might suspect, Kathy was a shoo-in for the role she plays. About 25 girls were interviewed for the part; four received screen tests. Kathy was tops in the eyes of everyone.

Kathy says, "When I get married, I hope to have at least three children, like my sister Beverly has. When I go on my hiatus from the show, I may go to New York to resume my college courses. In that case, I'll live with Beverly and her husband."

But no matter where she goes on hiatus, the chances are that Kathy will continue to play Cupid to her friends--and happily, they will probably play Cupid for her, which means that there are a lot of lucky boys in Kathy's future!

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