Bree Walker

Bree Walker (born 1953) is a well-known television network news anchor (and later, a talk radio host); she has appeared as a news anchor and/or reporter in San Diego, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Biography

Walker was born and raised in the state of Minnesota near the Iowa border. She inherited a rare genetic condition called ectrodactyly resulting in her fingers and toes being fused together. She has been married and divorced three times. Her surname is taken from her second husband. She has one child with her second husband, and one with her third ex-husband, Jim Lampley.

Career

As an advocate for people with disabilities, she is one of the first in her field to succeed in spite of a physical deformity.

The joint decision of Bree and her husband, Jim Lampley, to proceed to have children, despite the 50% probability that their children would be afflicted with ectrodactyly, has been somewhat controversial.Fact|date=September 2008 Both their daughter and son were indeed born with the disease.

Established and well into her career at the ABC affiliate KGTV Channel 10 in San Diego, Walker decided to go public with her ectrodactyly after previously keeping her deformed hands hidden inside a pair of glove-like prosthetic hands. With her hands now clearly visible, she continued her successful newscasting career at KGTV, moving up to the larger rock station KPRI FM. She started her television career in 1980 at KGTV as a consumer advocacy reporter. She also dabbled in acting, appearing as herself in the end-of-the-world science-fiction thriller "Without Warning" (credited as Bree Walker-Lampley but referred to on screen as Bree Walker) and as television reporter Wendy Sorenson in "The Chase". Walker also guest-starred on an episode of the PBS children's series, "Reading Rainbow", to talk about her disability.

Walker was watching the show "Carnivàle", an HBO television series about a Depression-era carnival traveling through the Dust Bowl, during its 2003 season. She noticed that no cast member had ectrodactyly. She requested, created, auditioned, and won the role of "Sabina, The Scorpion Lady".

Bree's portrayal of Sabina occurred in three episodes during the 2005 season. She showcases her webbed hands as the series probes public attitudes toward persons with highly visible disabilities. In Walker's own words: "I really get to be me." Walker based Sabina on characters she knew existed in the 1920s and 1930s carnival sideshows with names like "Lobster Girl" or "Lobster Boy". These were typically the best jobs persons with ectrodactyly could have, with most others being hidden away.

Walker furthered her acting career in 2006 by appearing as an inspirational woman with ectrodactyly on the fourth season premiere of "Nip/Tuck". She and her children were also featured on an episode of TLC's "My Unique Family".

Off Camera

Walker and her former husband, NBC and HBO sportscaster Jim Lampley, jointly run Crystal Spring Productions, a film production company. She is also a contributing writer for "New Image" magazine. Walker resides in Del Mar, California with her children, both of whom also have ectrodactyly. Lampley was her third husband. Her second husband, Robert Walker, from San Diego, is an independent media production professional active in radio, television and film production. She had no children with her first husband.

Walker currently hosts a progressive talk show on KTLK AM 1150 in Los Angeles on Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m. Pacific Time.

Purchase of Camp Casey

On June 8, 2007 Brad Friedman of The BRAD BLOG [ [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4665 The Brad Blog : Exclusive: Progressive La Talk Radio Host To Buy Cindy Sheehan Property In Crawford, Texas ] ] broke the news that Walker had purchased Cindy Sheehan's convert|5|acre|m2|sing=on "Camp Casey" site in Crawford, Texas for $87,000, in response to Sheehan's May 26, 2007 announcement that she would be selling the site and ending her antiwar activities; Walker plans to preserve the property as a peace memorial and garden, and keep it open to antiwar protesters. The Associated Press confirmed the report on 6/9/07 [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/09/state/n031247D29.DTL Sheehan selling land outside Bush's ranch to radio show host ] ] .

Sheehan handed the deed to Walker during her June 9, 2007 broadcast of The Bree Walker show. [ [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4667 The BRAD BLOG : AUDIO: Cindy Sheehan Hands 'Camp Casey' Deed to Bree Walker ] ] .

See also

* [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/19/lkl.01.html Larry King Live transcript]
*Diane Bell, "Of Bree, HBO and ectrodactyly", "San Diego Union Tribune" newspaper, January 25, 2005
* [http://abilitymagazine.com/walker_interview.html for her career biography.]

References