Henderson, one of ten children, was born on Valentine's Day in Dale, Indiana, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Elder), a homemaker, and Joseph Henderson, a tobacco sharecropper, of Danish origin. Raised Catholic, she graduated from St. Francis Academy in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1951; shortly thereafter, she went to New York City, enrolling in the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She Read more...

Henderson started her career on the stage, performing in musicals, such as the touring production of Oklahoma! and South Pacific at Lincoln Center. She debuted on Broadway in Wish You Were Here in 1952, and later starred in such notable shows as Fanny (1954), and The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963). In 1962, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago Theatre, and the same year became Read more...

In the mid-1950s, Henderson was diagnosed with a bone deformation of the inner ear, and she had to have surgery to prevent deafness. Henderson married Ira Bernstein in January 1956, and the couple had four children. During the filming of The Brady Bunch in Los Angeles, Henderson returned to the family's New York home each weekend to spend time with her children. In 1985, she divorced him after almost Read more...