But in an interview this week with Larry King, it was something Walters couldn't say that revealed much about her true character. In questions about her mentally challenged older sister -- her only sibling -- Walters couldn't recall the year Jackie died, or even get the decade right. In fact, Walters, who used the interview to preach and scold about the way society deals with handicapped people, couldn't even narrow down her lone sister's death beyond this: "I think like in the late '80s, early '90s."
You can't write off her lack of an answer to stage fright because Walters lives in the lights. Come on. The late 1980s and early 1990 would comprise a seven-year window if fairly defined as 1987 to 1993. How many of us can't come closer with the year of departure for family members we cared about (or even didn't) than this?
It makes you wonder about how much Walters really thought about this sister.
Walters seemed pretty sharp and quick on the draw with other recollections during the interview so we can't write this off as a senior moment, either.
Here is the transcript from here interview with Larry King Monday night on CNN:
KING: Let's take a call for Barbara Walters. Mexico, Missouri. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Larry. How are you this evening?
KING: Fine. What's the question?
CALLER: I was just wanting to ask Barbara how long has it been since your parents and your sister have been deceased?
WALTERS: I should have that -- my sister died of ovarian cancer. I don't have it in -- I think like in the late '80s, early '90s. You know, my mother died at -- they both lived long. My mother died at 91, and my father died before. You know, when my sister died, my mother was already going through some dementia. And I never told her that my sister died. I told her that my sister was with Carol Channing because Carol had loved my sister and my mother felt happy about that.
1 comment:
Barbara Walter's life was influenced greatly by her older sister and she's written a beautiful memoir about her life. I read another memoir of a life influence by a sibling that I recommend highly - I actually liked it even more. The memoir is ""My Stroke of Insight"" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr Taylor became a Harvard brain scientist to find the cause and cure for schizophrenia because her older brother was a sufferer. Then, crazy as life can be, Dr. Taylor had a stroke at age 37. What was amazing was that her left brain was shut down by the stroke - where language and thinking occur - but her right brain was fully functioning. She experienced bliss and nirvana and the way she writes about it (or talks about it in her now famous TED talk) is incredible.
What I took away from Dr. Taylor's book above all, and why I recommend it so highly, is that you don't have to have a stroke or take drugs to find the deep inner peace that she talks about. Her book explains how. ""I want what she's having"", and thanks to this wonderful book, I can!
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