Peggy Ann Freeman August 31, β May 17, , known professionally as Donyale Luna , was an African-American model and actress who gained popularity in Western Europe during the late s. Luna and her sisters had a "financially stable upbringing in a middle-class neighbourhood of Detroit" on Scotten Avenue. As a child, her father frequently took her on trips to local cinemas , and, in summer, to swim at the " Kronk Gym " in Detroit. She attended the Detroit High School of Commerce, where she studied data processing, and Cass Technical High School , where she studied journalism, performing arts and languages, and was in the school choir.
Outside of school, she participated in local community theater and the experimental Concept East Theater. She was also said to have spoken "not with a broad A or a French R, but in an accent she'd invented". Her mother said its tone "was like she was singing". At this time she wanted to pursue a career in acting. She was known then as an aspiring actress.
After rehearsals, inspired by the beatniks , she visited coffeehouses near the Wayne State University campus with her boyfriend, dressed in head to toe black.
On weekends, she often crossed the bridge to neighboring Windsor, Ontario , or traveled to other nearby parts of Canada. She became known to Roland Sharette, the managing director of the Detroit Civic Center Theatre, as a "kook" because she had a habit of walking around barefoot "even down the street. Contrasting her time in Detroit with her time in Europe modeling, she later noted: "Back in Detroit I wasn't considered beautiful or anything. She looked like an oddball to the run-of-the-mill student.
Not enough people had told her how strikingly beautiful she was. I grew up realizing I was strange. In October , she moved to New York to pursue acting and modeling, and found work as a junior secretary at an "electronic cabling firm on Varick Street. Her sister Lillian later recalled "she packed so little it seemed like she was going on an overnight trip rather than to live in New York. In January , her mother fatally shot her father in self-defense as he was reportedly abusive, coming to Luna's childhood home drunk and threatening her mother "just steps away from the family home.
