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Julia Childs She was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, CA., on Aug. 15, 1912, to an upper-class family that employed a cook. According to her biographer, she couldn't even boil water when she graduated from Smith College in 1934 with a degree in History. Child, who was 6' 2" tall, had intended to be either a novelist or a baskteball player. During WWII she served with the Office of Strategic Services (an agency that later became the CIA). She served first in Washington, DC, then in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and later China. It was during that time that she met her husband, Paul Child. After WWII he was assigned to the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris. It was in Paris that Julia started her culinary career, at the Cordon Bleu, one of France's premier culinary institutes. In collaboration with her two French collegues, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, she wrote "Mastering the Art of french Cooking", which appeared in 1961. Child was 49 at the time the book was published. The volume remains in print and is considered a seminal work because of its simplicity, clarity and effect, which was to illustrate that anyone who wished could cook classic French cuisine. Craig Claiborne, the long-time food editor of the New York Times called it "a masterpiece". The book led to an interview with WGBH in Boston, and the responce to that interview led to the debut of "The French Chef" in 1961, Child's long running PBS show. Julia Child's kitchen has been preserved as an exhibit at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.