Ask American Profile

Betsy Stark, Carroll O'Connor, Crystal Bernard, Statler Brothers

I would like to know about Betsy Stark of ABC News. I think she is a wonderful reporter.
—Betty Welch, Oil City, Pa.

Stark is the business correspondent for ABC News and is featured regularly on World News Tonight and Good Morning America. A graduate of Smith College, she started her career at PBS as a documentary producer for Inside Story, for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Reporting. She took home another Emmy for ABC's millennium coverage and a Peabody Award for her participation in the network's 9/11 reportage. A mother to two college-age children, she was born and still lives in New York City.

I loved watching Carroll O’Connor in All in the Family. Was he anything at all like his character, Archie Bunker? What can you tell me about him?
—B. Shipley, Hutchinson, Kan.

O’Connor actually was a well-educated, socially progressive, politically liberal man of the world, the opposite of All in the Family’s bigoted, loudmouthed, blue-collar Archie. Born in Manhattan, N.Y., and raised in the borough of Queens, O’Connor studied abroad at the University of Ireland before earning a master’s degree in speech in 1956 from the University of Montana. He died in June 2001 at age 76 due to heart failure, one month before his 50th wedding anniversary to wife Nancy Fields. His one son, Hugh, died of a drug overdose in 1995, spurring a heartbroken O’Connor on a mission to warn others about the dangers of addiction. He starred in In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1994, and also served as the TV series’ executive producer and story editor, under the alias "Matt Harris."

What has Crystal Bernard from Wings been doing lately?
—Barbara Talbert, Fresno, Calif.

Since Wings, Bernard has had roles in several TV movies, including last year’s Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus, which recently was released on DVD. On Dec. 17, the sequel, Meet the Santas, will air on the Hallmark Channel. "I loved getting to be Mrs. Santa," says the 44-year-old Garland, Texas, native. "We’ve tried to make it very contemporary so everyone can relate to it." Bernard also reports that she’s recording a country-rock album.

What’s going on with the Statler Brothers?
—G. Weber, Glen Haven, Wis.

One of country music’s all-time fan-favorite singing groups, the Statlers—who took their name from the label on a box of bathroom tissues in their hotel room—retired in October 2002 with a final concert, near their hometown of Staunton, Va., which was recorded and made available on CD and DVD. Phil Balsley still is at the Statler offices in Staunton daily. Jimmy Fortune has relocated to Nashville, Tenn., and released a solo album of gospel songs called I Believe. Don Reid has written two books, Heroes and Outlaws of the Bible and Sunday Morning Memories, with another due out at Christmas called It Isn’t Christmas Till ... Along with his brother and fellow founding group member Harold, Reid also is working on a Statler memoir scheduled for a summer 2006 release.

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