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Remembering Farrah: An Angel on Earth

A documentary called "This is Farrah Fawcett" airs at 7 p.m. Thursday night on Kiii-TV.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — She was known around the world for her work on the TV show "Charlie's Angels", and next month will mark the 10-year anniversary of Farrah Fawcett's death.

Fawcett grew up in Corpus Christi. She died after a long battle with cancer on the same day that Michael Jackson died.

You can find her picture in the lobby of the Kiii-TV studios, among many other greats in TV history. While many may know the iconic California-girl look in Charlie's Angels, to her friends she was simply Farrah, a hometown girl who made it big.

A look through some Ray High School yearbooks can tell you a story about a young woman with humble beginnings.

"Very kind, very gentle," her friend Christine Skinner said. "Not at all like what you hear in Hollywood."

Skinner was one of Fawcett's best friends.

"Because I was assigned a locker by the back door," Skinner said. "We shared a locker together. I don't know a lot of people knew her nickname, Drippy."

The year was 1965, and already Fawcett was turning heads.

"Everybody was friends with her," Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb said. "She had a couple of steady boyfriends in high school. I wasn't one of them."

The mayor remembers his classmate well.

"She was a beautiful girl," McComb said.

And then she became famous, from her iconic red swimsuit poster to Charlie's Angels -- to her unforgettable role in Burning Bed, a movie based on a true story about a woman who had been a victim of abuse.

In 1993, the actress and icon even stopped by the Kiii-TV studios for a telethon that helped raise money for, at the time, the Women's Shelter of South Texas. Kiii News Anchor Joe Gazin was there.

You can check out the video of her video here.

"I got to know her just briefly," Gazin said. "She seemed very sharp, talented, and someone who really cares. Beyond that of a normal person."

Despite her movie star status, she didn't forget her friends back home. A group of friends from Ray High School who called themselves "The Amigas" find time to get together every year to reminisce.

A documentary called "This is Farrah Fawcett" airs at 7 p.m. Thursday night on Kiii-TV.

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