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in the Coast Guard, Sarkisian worked as a truck driver and became addicted to heroin. Explained Sarkisian, “I really didn’t spend much time with her when she was a kid. I was away from home most of the time hauling produce. I’d only see Cher now and then because her mother, Georgia, was married several times in between all that. And, Georgia always told me that it was better if I stayed away” (9). He eventually ended up serving four prison terms for drug possession. In the 1970s, when Cher was asked about her father, she flippantly replied, “I don’t even know what he’s doing, but it’s probably nothing legal” (10). He unsuccessfully sued her for slandering him, and their relationship rarely changed. He developed lung cancer in the late 1970s, and he and Cher spoke on the phone before he died, but he was more of a transient character in her life than a parent who was actively involved in her life or childhood development.
    Cher’s exotically dark features come from her varied ethnic background. Her father was Armenian; her mother was part Cherokee Indian. Georgia later married a man named John Southall and had another daughter, Cher’s half-sister Georganne. Explains Holt, “Both Cher and Georganne were adopted by my fifth husband, Gilbert La Piere. He loved the girls. His name, of course, was French. At the time Cher married Sonny, her legal name was Cherilyn La Piere. But I can’t seem to convince Cher we aren’t French” (11).
    Both Georgia and Georganne were fair-skinned and blonde, while Cher’s coloring was darker. According to Cher, “My mother once told me something. ‘Don’t ever expect to be the most beautiful, the most talented, or even the youngest one around. But, what you do have is something special. Make that work for you” (12).
    According to Georgia, her eldest daughter has been plagued by lifelong insecurity about her looks. “I think Cher felt she was an ugly duckling,” says Holt. “She never believed she was pretty. Of course, I never believed I was, either. My mother was highly critical of me, and even to this day I can’t own beauty. Maybe that’s what it is with Cher. She can’t own it, either” (8).
    Georgia Holt (Jackie Jean Crouch) was born in Arkansas, and when her alcoholic father separated from her mother, they headed west for California. Georgia and her father picked up money along their way by performing and passing the hat from town to town. Georgia would sing, and her father would play the guitar. After they arrived in Los Angeles, Georgia found a job as a maid, although she was only thirteen at the time. Energetic and determined to get ahead in life, she managed to hold down the job and attend junior high school.
My father lived long enough to see Cher become a star. We sat together when she appeared at the Hollywood Bowl. He kept telling me, “That’s you up there, Jackie, that’s you!” I loved my father dearly. He had tremendous drive to be a somebody, to accomplish things. He never did. But I always told myself I was somebody—even when I cried myself to sleep as a maid. Since they were youngsters, I have told Cher and Georganne they were princesses, and I was a queen. They believed me. And I believed myself (11).
    When she moved with her two daughters back to Los Angeles from El Centro, she changed her name to Georgia Holt and began making the rounds, looking for work as an actress. While she was out meeting casting agents, Cherilyn would baby-sit for her younger sister. Says Cher,
I used to take care of “Gee” [Georganne] when my mother was working. One time I gave her a little toy car and she ate all the wheels off it. My mother came home and beat the hell out of me. I guess our life was strange. It wasn’t like The Donna Reed Show or Father Knows Best . But my mother was real open and liberated. She was a combination of Auntie Mame and Florence Nightingale (13).
    “Cher was very good with Georganne,” her mother recalls, “We always had a