Only Girl

The only child of older parents, Nancy was doted on by both her mother and father. She never liked being an only child, though. When very young, she insisted her parents go back to the hospital they got her from to make sure they hadn't left a brother or sister behind. Years later, she talked her parents into bringing home a young girl from the St. Louis Orphan's Home and begged them to adopt her. (They didn't.)

Since none of her parents' siblings married, she had no first cousins, which meant she was the only child in her extended family, further intensifying her "only child" experience. This probably explains why she seemed rather adult-like at an early age.

"When you're an only child,
you learn to rely on yourself to gather information about the world around you. You don't assume an older sibling's perceptions."

—Nancy

...maybe just a little.