Biography

Aunt of Julius Babao.

Daughter with Vicente Babao (a military man): Cathy Babao-Guballa who is an author, columnist, grief educator and counselor works as a communications consultant for various multinational companies, and teaches grief education at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Days before she was set to return to Cebu after splitting with her boyfriend, she, together with cousin Luz and a photographer friend did the rounds of the Big Three studios - Premiere, Sampaguita and LVN. At LVN, Art Dimayuga, the public relations person of LVN at that time, and Ate Maring, LVN's wardrobe mistress and a relative of LVN owner Narcisa de Leon, offered for a screen test to her. She landed a role in Malvarosa (1958), replacing the meanie Rosa Rosal who was pregnant at that time.

In 1958, she left her career as a young actress in Cebu to go to Manila to follow her then boyfriend, also an actor named Tony. She threatened to runaway should her mother refused. After months of search, she found him in a restaurant called La Buena Suerte in Escolta, Manila. On the day she met him in Manila, Tony told her to return to Cebu because she could not make it Manila since she is a brown-skinned and not mestiza. She considered to commit suicide but ended up in church.