To really get to know Lisa Welch - not an altogether simple task, since she is, by her own admission, "a shy, reserved person" - one must delve a bit into her past. For starters, she's the daughter of a career military officer and, as a result, spent most of her youth traveling from town to town. "U
...p until I was ten," she reminisces, "we didn't live anyplace for more than three years. Half the time, we lived on Army bases. I sort of liked it then, though - always going someplace new, meeting new people." Altogether she has lived in Maryland (where she was born), West Germany, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Alaska, Hawaii and San Francisco - quite an itinerary for someone her age. The peripatetic nature of her life came to a halt several years ago, though, when Lisa's father was transferred from San Francisco to Hawaii. By then old enough to make her own decisions, Lisa opted to remain in Frisco and has lived there ever since. "It's hard for me to think of anyplace as home," she says, "and when people ask me where I'm from, I usually just tell them I'm an Army brat. San Francisco is about the closest I have come to having a real home." After completing high school at the age of 16 (she has always been the youngest in her class), Lisa attended the College of Marin in Marin County and studied fashion retailing for two years. Her feelings about the infamous Marin County were mixed: "Believe it or not, they still say things like 'invading your space' a lot there, but I never really got into the typical Marin lifestyle of consciousness raising and all that." Following college, Lisa worked two jobs at once - travel agent during the day, restaurant hostess at night - but the experience wore her out. "I was working so much," she says, "my dog was having emotional problems." Then on a short trip through Los Angeles, she stopped at the Playboy modeling agency just for the hell of it and was persuaded to try out for Playmate. "The whole Playmate experience has been very beneficial for me," says Lisa. "Most importantly, it's helped me overcome my shyness. I'm not nearly as reserved as I used to be."
