Late December, 1954, Ma and Pa Duane found another tax deduction.  They decided to keep him and for no particular reason, they added the moniker Doug to the last name of Duane.  A star was born, perhaps but that would come later.  Much later, even some 58 years later the star was still waiting to be born.

Ma and Pa lived in a mansion in Springfield, Ohio.  Okay it wasn’t a mansion but it was a lot more spacious then what Ma and Pa grew up in.  Doug was the 4^th and last child of that Duane Clan.  Some say they kept the best for last.   Okay, only Doug has said that but his siblings still liked him a little.  Tragedy struck some 4 years later when Pa was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Two days after Doug turned 6 years old, they lost Pa.

Ma and the family would survive as best they could.  The oldest sister, Sandi was 19 and working so that helped ease the burden.  Pa’s brother (Doug’s uncle) started dating Ma after a couple of years and they married.  Doug’s uncle, now his stepfather, was a fireman.  They moved to the suburbs and to a slightly bigger non-mansion.  A couple of years later, after Doug’s 2^nd sister, Cathie moved out, they bought a trailer and started touring the United States and Canada.  One year it was 3 weeks in Florida, where they were going to then head to New Orleans.  However, Hurricane Camille arrived so they went to the Carolina’s instead.

Brother Bill went into the Navy shortly after that, so until Doug graduated in 1973, it was just the 3 of them.  They continued camping with long extended trips, a month one year, to go out west.  Next year saw Maine and Nova Scotia, and so on.

After graduation, Doug tried his hand at working.  Didn’t like it at all so he tried his other hand at acting.  He finally settled on cutting off his hands and going back to full time work.  He found employment as a parts counterman for Ford and with intermittent bouts of acting, stayed as a parts guy for 34 years.

He met his 1^st wife on the stage.  They married and at first moved to Florida.  While there, Doug’s uncle/dad was also diagnosed with ALS.  A year after his uncle/dad passed, they moved to California.  That worked okay for Doug, but his wife didn’t like it or him for that matter and they divorced after almost 5 years of marriage.

A couple of years later, he met and married his 2^nd and last wife.  They stayed together for 18 years before divorcing.  During that time his sister Cathie passed from ALS also.  The disease really sucks.

Doug has always spent time on the baseball diamond.  Earlier with Little League and so on, and then with numerous softball teams.  He has played in leagues or tournaments in Nevada, California, Ohio and Florida.  He also has a passion for Major League Baseball.  Through the years he has camped in 49 states and 5 Canadian provinces and has been to 51 Major League Baseball parks, over 20 or so of which are no longer in service.

On the acting front, he was in a movie that went to the Cannes Film Festival.  He has been in a couple of commercials and still does some extra work whenever he can.  Mostly he is proudest of the fact that he is also a play writer.  Two of his plays have been produced.  One in Hollywood and the 2^nd one in both Palos Verdes, California and Tulsa, Oklahoma.  With the exception of Tulsa, Doug starred in both productions.  Autograph for a slight fee available in the dugout.

Sister Sandi passd from Alzheimer’s a couple of years back.  Brother Bill is alive and well still back in Springfield along with Ma, who is 91 going on 100 years old.  Every year Doug goes back to Ohio and if he can he takes a side trip to a baseball game to add to his collection.

Doug plays 4 times a week with seniors’ softball mostly, although Saturday is a have fun league that incorporates all ages.  Sunday is Culver City Senior Softball Association and Tuesday pickup games at Manhattan Beach Senior Softball Association and Thursday again at Manhattan Beach for league games with Tab Tech.  Other than that, he likes Las Vegas, so he can’t be all bad.