The former Bay News 9 morning anchor is now a multitasker for Media General, for whom she co-hosts Daytime on WFLA Ch. 8 and acts as Community Affairs Director for Great 38, where she hosts three news and public affairs programs, plus the Tampa Bay Rowdies’ pre-game show. The Clearwater resident calls herself a “Georgia redneck,” which doesn’t exactly jibe with her polished TV persona, but it’s an integral part of her charm. A former Miss Georgia World, she’s got the poise of a beauty pageant vet and the earthiness of a woman who goes back to her family’s farm every summer to “get some red Georgia clay under my nails.” Her gift of gab (“My sisters used to pay me not to talk, and I made no money”) has served her well. She got her start in TV as a country music VJ in Atlanta while still in college at Kennesaw State (where she was a member of the clogging team), went on to do traffic in Houston, then moved to Tampa Bay after a visit to Clearwater in 1996. “I rented a red Mustang convertible, saw the dolphins, and said to myself, ‘I gotta move here.” Teased in high school for being overweight, she’s had a lifelong interest in fitness, and, following a family tradition (a distant cousin invented the flying machine and sold his patent to the Wright Brothers), she’s an inventor, and has two patents for fitness products, one of which — a cross between the Bosu Ball and the Reebok step called the Workout 180 — she won the chance to pitch on the public TV series Everyday Edisons. “If I have a motto,” she says, “it’s ‘I got this.’” We spoke in July at Stillwaters Tavern, the then-new restaurant of Top Chef contestant Jeffrey Jew.
She doesn’t clog anymore, but she Zumbas: Her instructor is DR. KASIA OSTRENZKA, whom she met when she went to her for a Botox treatment in 2001. “You don’t have to be thin on TV, but the camera adds pounds.”
Her favorite Rowdies players: “Forward Maicon Santos and goalie Matt Pickens. I have a favorite Brazilian and a favorite American, I think that’s fair.”
Favorite restaurant: “STILLWATERS TAVERN. It’s classy but not fancy-schmancy — that’s me. And they have fresh trout here — my grandparents had a rainbow trout farm.”
But if she is going fancy: “CAPITAL GRILLE — the Kona crusted sirloin.”
Favorite place for Italian: VILLA BELLINI on Gulf to Bay in Clearwater in the old Tio Pepe’s. “[Chef Ciro Mancini]’s kitchen is amazing.”
Best place for seafood: “Hands down, without blinking an eye, MIDDLE GROUNDS GRILL in Treasure Island. It’s the former Robby’s Pancake House — you can still buy the mix there. I’m the only female ever invited to the Boys’ Club dinners at Middle Grounds. I am probably 40 years their junior.”
That’s where she fishes, too: She goes out into the middle grounds of the Gulf “where it’s 10 feet deep — where all the fish are. The farther you go the bigger the fish… I got poles, I got lines, I got it all. I had a business as a kid digging worms and taking them to the bait shop.”
Favorite burger: “I hate to give this up, but I will: The Big Gooey at Willy’s Burger and Booze in St. Pete Beach.”
Favorite clothing shops: “Designer Exchange and Designers Consigner on Central are my two favorites. Julie is the owner — a single mother of two girls. I love supporting women like that.”
Who does her hair: “Cindy at CO SALON, next to Oliver’s across from the scratch-and-dent in St. Petersburg. She works as hard as anyone I know.”
For her aches and pains: “My chiropractor is the best in the whole world, DR. MARTIN MARCUS. I carried a 25-lb. camera and a 12-lb. tripod doing one-man-band [reporting] gigs for six years.”
Favorite theaters: “I like the smaller ones — AMERICAN STAGE has some incredible shows coming through — freeFALL, too. I like things that are just offbeat.”
Favorite interviews: “Phyllis Diller was the best interview of my life, but I also liked talking to Dame Edna and Jane Castor. I’ve always looked up to her.”
Where she shoots skeet: The Wyoming Club in Clearwater near HSN. “I love a woman who can shoot.” She says she can handle an AK-14 “pretty darn well.”
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2015.