CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON -- The Moral of the Story

You probably recognize her voice after eighteen years of commercials

for Lucky Food Stores. You’re sure to identify this co-host who has

joined Bob Eubanks for 19 years of the Tournament of Roses Parade. But

you truly know her heart when you hear her story.

Stephanie Edwards shared that story last week to more than 300 women

at a luncheon hosted by Marketplace Women of Orange County. Marketplace

Women is a gathering to join together for friendship and encouragement,

as well as to integrate personal, professional and spiritual lives. The

luncheon was part of Christian Outreach Week.

Stephanie captured the audience’s attention as she eloquently shared

about all those areas of her life. One minute everyone was laughing, and

the next, the room went silent. A hush happened when someone’s cell phone

rang.

Stephanie looked up. “Whose phone is ringing?”

We looked around nervously. Her crystal blue eyes twinkled and she

rescued the room with both grace and wit by saying, “Go ahead and answer,

it might be for me.”

Stephanie’s career in show business began more than 30 years ago.

“I wrote Ralph Story and told him that I am a great actress, but in

the meantime, I need a job, do you know of a place in show business where

I could fit? It was one of the most aggressive things I’ve ever done,”

Stephanie said. “He called me back that day [and] hired me, I became his

assistant and eventually he told ABC he was bringing me along as the

co-host of his morning program.

“It was a tremendous break for me and he remained a great mentor and a

wonderful gentleman. Ralph is struggling with emphysema, but the brain is

as brilliant as ever.”

Stephanie said that she interviewed just about everybody, mainly

because “everyone was willing to go on television and talk about

themselves.”

“I have interviewed the head of the American Nazi Party, and I have

interviewed animals. Those are some of the most pleasant,” Edwards said.

“I interviewed a wonderful cheetah and the other guest of the day was

Maria Von Trapp, the lady who lived the ‘Sound of Music.’ She was rather

elderly by then. She came in her Austrian costume, with lots of red in

it. She sat at one end, and from the other side of the stage came this

lunging, out-of-control cheetah. Well, they brought it under control or

you would have heard the story by now.”

Stephanie also shared some advice with the women at the luncheon.

“It pays to tell the truth, because eventually you get to that point,

like the old show business axiom, where you better be nice to the people

on the way up, because you’re going to meet them again on the way down.”

Stephanie has spoken to countless groups of men, women and children.

She said she has developed a theory about how times have changed --

People are now “aspiring to what is not real.”

“Nowadays I believe people go to the movies, but mistake what they see

on screen as being real, and that their life is not,” she said. “They

think, ‘I am not yet real. When is my life going to be real and how can I

get there?”’

Later in the luncheon, she said that left to her own nature, she is

someone who hopes for the best, but expects the worst. She said that

knowing that this is part of her character has “really bent the roads

I’ve taken since I was 12 years old,” in part because of depression.

“People are beginning to quietly admit that depression is an epidemic

in our world. Even in this God-kissed environment, life can be very

hard,” Stephanie said. “When you break your arm, you have a sling, when

you have depression, you’d better get help.”

God’s love is what Stephanie credits with keeping her buoyant.

“In the midst of the greatest pain and tragedies of my life. . .I have

known one joy and that is the truth of God’s promise in Christ,” she

said. “Christ is the way, the truth and the life and this is a way

offered to everyone, no matter what their present religion, background or

creed.”

Her belief in Christ, however, has not helped her when it comes to

Hollywood.

“It’s not popular to be a Christian in show business,” she said. “In

show business, when I’ve had enough rapport with someone to speak of who

I am as a Christian, invariably they ask, ‘Why would you want to be one

of those?’ And the ‘one of those’ that they explain to me is someone who

calls themselves a Christian, but who does not know the Lord.”

Holding up a Bible, Stephanie said “If the world could see that God

calls the game, then we could accept that the way to live with God is

just as He said in the Bible. . . . This book outsells any piece of

literature since papyrus was first written on with a quill pen.”

Stephanie, also known as the “Lucky Lady with red hair,” closed the

afternoon by encouraging people to open up their hearts and minds to

Jesus Christ and see what happens. “Do you trust the god of your

experience or do you trust a fresh experience of God? May you know the

joy and love of God before the day is over.”

The standing ovation Stephanie received at the end was not just to

honor beautiful words by a beautiful woman. The standing ovation was also

a sign that a room full of women showed that they too stood with her to

live their lives for God.

* CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks

frequently to parenting groups. She may be reached via e-mail at o7

cindy@onthegrow.comf7 or through the mail at P.O. Box 6140-No. 505,

Newport Beach, CA 92658.