Julia Child

It was while she was working with OSS as a communicator of the top secret documents between US government officials and intelligence officers that she met Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS employee.

The two tied the knot on September 1, 1946 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania. Eventually, they shifted base to Washington DC. The couple had no children

In 1994, her husband Paul passed away after staying in a nursing home for five years following a series of strokes in 1989.

Born Julia Carolyn McWilliams, Julia Child was the eldest of the three children born to John McWilliams, Jr. and Julia Carolyn Weston. While her father was a famous land manager, her mother was an heiress of a paper company, owned by her maternal grandfather Byron Curtis Weston.

Young Child completed her formal education from various schools and institutions including the Westridge School, Polytechnic School and Katherine Branson School. It was during this time that he excelled as an athletic and played various sports including tennis, golf and basketball.

For further studies, she enrolled at the Smith College from where she graduated with a major in English in 1934.

Attaining her academic qualifications, she moved to New York where she settled as a copywriter in the advertisement department of a swank and ritzy furnishing company, W. & J. Sloane

Three years later, she returned to California and took up the profile of a writer in various local publications. She even worked in the department of advertising for some of the firms. During this time, she volunteered work for the Junior League of Pasadena

Unable to enlist at the women army corps due to her tall stature, she instead applied to Office of Strategic Services. She was first recruited for the position of a typist but no sooner was promoted to the rank of a top secret researcher.

She then worked for a year with the Emergency Rescue Equipment Section at the OSS. In 1944, she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon in an important profile which included working with the registering and channelizing of highly classified communications for the OSS stations in Asia.

Two years later, she moved to Washington DC along with her husband, Paul Cushing Child. It was he who introduced her to fine cuisine, thanks to his love for sophisticate dining and taste.

In 1965, she was presented with the Peabody Award for Personal Award for ‘The French Chef’.

In 1965, she received the Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television- Individuals for The French category in 1980, she was awarded the U.S. National Book Awards for Current Interest (hardcover) for Julia Child and More Company.

In 1996, she bagged the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show Host for ‘In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs’

In the new millennium, she was conferred with the prestigious French Legion of Honour. Same year, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show Host for ‘Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home’ in 2001. In 2003, she received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.