HELEN HAYES

Long before she played a little old lady stowaway in the daddy of all disaster movies, "Airport," Miss Hayes was known internationally as the "First Lady of the Theater." I ran into her -- literally! -- in the early '60s. 
     I was attending opening night of a Broadway play that co-starred a fellow Texan and longtime family friend named John Hillerman (later "Higgins" in TV's "Magnum P.I."). After the show I went backstage to congratulate him, and as I rounded a corner I brushed the tiny actress' arm, knocking her slightly off-balance "Please forgive me Miss Hayes," I said, to which she sweetly replied, "Perfectly all right, young man. Happens to me constantly."