Della Street
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Della Street, played by Barbara Hale, was Perry Mason's confidential secretary in the television series and made-for-TV movies.
In the very first Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, written in the early days of the Great Depression it is revealed that Della Street came from a wealthy, or at least well-to-do, family that was wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929, forcing Della to get a job as a secretary. Of course, by the time of the TV series in the 1950s and 1960s, this would have not fit well with the age of the characters as then portrayed.
Erle Stanley Gardner, a very prolific author, employed three secretaries simultaneously, all sisters, to keep up with his output. One of them he eventually married, after his first wife, from whom he was separated for 30 years, died. This was Jean Gardner, born Agnes Helene Walter. People who knew her believed she was the inspiration for Della Street, though neither she, nor Erle Stanley Gardner himself, admitted it. Mrs. Gardner said she thought he put several girls together to create the character.