 Peters was born Bernadette Lazzara to a Sicilian American family in Ozone Park , Queens , New York , the youngest of three children . Her siblings are casting director Donna DeSeta and Joseph Lazzara . Her father , Peter , drove a bread delivery truck , and her mother , Marguerite ( née Maltese ) , started her in show business by putting her on the television show Juvenile Jury at the age of three and a half . She appeared on the television shows Name That Tune and several times on The Horn and Hardart Children 's Hour at age five . 
