Wednesday, January 23, 2008

"Santa Barbara" actress survives a troubled life -- and tells her story

In the early days of "Santa Barbara," she played Sally Taylor, the high-school friend of Joe Perkins who got him a job after he was released from prison. She's been married for a couple decades to "Eight is Enough" star Willie Aames (and has even starred with him in his highly fun and engaging "Bible Man"). She's also led a very interesting life.

She's Maylo McCaslin, and her story, along with Aames' story, is told in the new memoir "Grace Is Enough." Published by B&H Books, a Nashville-based Christian publisher, the book tells the story of McCaslin's escape from poverty, rape and drugs.

You might have had no idea, when you saw Sally Taylor on screen, that the actress playing her was a former runaway drug addict, in her young 20s, just meeting the love of her life in 1985 (thankfully, the man who would help her turn her life around).

Read more about the Aameses and their book at the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-aames22jan22,1,637257.story?coll=la-entnews-tv-topstories

As the Times observes, McCaslin and her husband represent "the self-reliant vanguard of an emerging critique of born-again Christianity." They have some interesting things to say about traditional, conservative churches.

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