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Featured Artist
Linda Carson

by Cliff Roles, radio host 1220 AM Talk Of The Sun Coast, columnist SCENE Magazine

On her 65th birthday, Linda Carson's gift to herself was to join the "Luffing Lassies", part of the Sarasota Sailing Squadron, buy herself a 17' Pram sailing boat and learn how to sail. That was five years ago. Amazing as it is to believe, Linda turned 70 on July 11 this year.
She still sails a lot nowadays: "I capsized last week" she blushes. "Two men from the chase boat had to fish me out of the bay!" I visit Linda at her desk in Sarasota's ABC 7 studios on Tenth Street, where she's preparing the weekend news together with her producer Courtney. We chat as she proudly shows me photos of her four children and three grandchildren.

This past Monday, December 7, Linda made her way to her church to celebrate the life of her late husband Bud Carson, the acclaimed former football coach to whom she was married for 35 years. He passed away on that date in 2005. "I'm helping to send my two grandsons to college in Bud's name", she tells me. She's also formed the Bud Carson Memorial Scholarship, which awards $ 5,000 every year to a defensive High School football player who embodies "the backbone of the team". Three players have already received this scholarship.

It didn't escape anyone's notice 3 years ago when Linda put herself in the hands of Dr. Bill Anderson and succeeded in losing 73 pounds. "He would get me to sit in a chair and meditate," Linda recalls. She still sticks to the no-snacking rule, restricts herself to 800 calories a day, exercises at the YMCA three times a week and takes her dog Murphy, a 5-year old Collie, for brisk walks. Linda got him from Southeastern Guide Dogs three years ago. "He didn't quite make the grade as a guide dog", she remembers. "But he's a great companion, and I love him dearly."

Linda has spent more than 44 years in the field of television broadcasting, working as a weathercaster, anchor, sports reporter, and consumer reporter. She began her career in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, as a weathercaster at the ABC affiliate. She spent 10 years at that station and went on to become a reporter and weekday anchor. Linda joined ABC 7 in 1995 from WTFX-TX in Philadelphia, PA, where she worked as a freelance weather anchor and Co-Host of the award winning show, "Job Exchange", and Guest Host of the sports feature "Eagles Day Live Show."

Memorable episodes in her career? "Definitely my coverage of Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta during the nation-shattering moments following his assassination. I was at WXIA-TV, getting ready to anchor the 11 pm news on the night it happened; we followed the Mayor to Coretta's house and waited outside while he told her what had happened. We saw the world change before our eyes when the leader of peaceful change was gone, and riots broke out all around the county."

Linda was present on October 25, 2006 when "Gainesville Ripper" Danny Rolling was executed by lethal injection in the Florida State Prison in Starke near Gainesville. He had been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of five people in 1989/90. "His signature was to arrange the bodies in such a way as to highlight the carnage in the rooms, even including setting up several mirrors and decapitating or posing his victims." Linda interviewed Rolling on Death Row.
"The most shocking thing was… (click here to read the rest of the story)