Life Minus TV Put Clayton Resident on 'Oprah' in 1986

Clayton resident Carol Weisman appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 during its first year on national television for an ironic reason: She didn't own a TV.

"Her staff actually found an article about my family in a now-defunct glossy magazine about St. Louis," Weisman stated in an email interview. "We were in a feature about two families in St. Louis who were raising their children without TV. I had never heard of her, since she was new to the national scene and I didn't have a TV."

The show ended its 25-year run Wednesday. During its time on TV, Weisman and were among the St. Louis residents to appear on the show.

Oprah's staff called on a Monday and asked whether Weisman could fly to Chicago on the following day and appear on the show on Wednesday.

Weisman agreed.

With her husband and a friend entrusted with the care of her children, she flew to Illinois. The Oprah crew put her up in a Michigan Avenue suite that featured room service—and four TVs.

"I got rid of the TV not because I am a big-time intellectual but because I adore it," Weisman stated, "so I spent the entire time going from room to room watching sitcoms."

When preparing for her appearance on the show, she recalls being repeatedly told to provide the Reader's Digest version of her story. Oprah is beautiful, and she and her staff were funny, Weisman stated. Weisman enjoyed getting her makeup done.

Appearing on Oprah has drawn a response from people Weisman has met in her travels around the world. The professional speaker and author, who has lived at Clayton's Maryland Walk since 2006, speaks on the topics of fundraising and governance.

During a presentation in Australia, an audience member asked whether Weisman knew Oprah.

"I said that I'd been on the show, but we weren't BFFs," Weisman stated. "I got a spontaneous standing ovation."

When visiting a tiny village in East Africa with the African Health and Hospital Foundation, a woman asked Weisman whether she knew Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The woman had met him the previous year. When Weisman said she did not, the woman then asked whether she knew Oprah.

"Scored a yes on that one," Weisman stated.