At age 17, she married Paul Mansfield on May 6, 1950. Their daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, was born six months later on November 8, 1950. Jayne and her husband enrolled in Southern Methodist University to study acting. In 1951, Jayne moved to Los Angeles and attended a summer semester at UCLA. She entered the Miss California contest but was forced to resign after Paul found out. She then moved to Austin, Texas, with her husband, and studied dramatics at the University of Texas at Austin. There she worked as a nude art model, sold books door-to-door, and worked as a receptionist at a dance studio. She also joined the Curtain Club, a popular campus theatrical society that included among its members lyricist Tom Jones, composer Harvey Schmidt, and actors Rip Torn and Pat Hingle. She then spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia (a US Army training facility) when Paul Mansfield served in the United States Army Reserve in the Korean War.