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| Television > Personally Speaking > 2005 Video Clips |
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 ASHINGTON, DC (May 12 , 2005) – Internationally-renowned author and "Queen of Suspense", Mary Higgins Clark; best-selling author of "The Notebook", Nicholas Sparks; and Jack McKeon, the manager of Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins, talk about the impact of faith in their lives in a one-hour "Personally Speaking" special that will be distributed to NBC-TV affliates on Sunday, June 19th.
Hosted by Msgr. Jim Lisante and produced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC), the special will be scheduled at the discretion of NBC-TV affiliate stations as part of the "Horizons of the Spirit" interfaith religious series. A list of stations that have scheduled broadcasts will be posted on this site as information becomes available. Viewers can also contact their local NBC-TV station to ask about their plans to air the program.
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Mary Higgins Clark always knew that she wanted to be a writer and her mother nurtured that dream from an early age. After her father’s sudden death when Mary was ten, however, the family struggled to make ends meet and she was forced to put her dream on hold to help her mother with the family finances. Soon after her first marriage, however, she started writing short stories at the kitchen table, finally selling the first one in 1956 for one hundred dollars – six years and forty rejection slips later. The death of her husband from a heart attack in 1964 left her a young widow with five children, so she went to work writing radio scripts to support the family. She also decided to try her hand at novels and began writing in the morning before the children woke up and whenever she had a free moment. Her second novel, “Where Are the Children?”, became an international best-seller. Since then she has written more than twenty-seven best-selling novels and has achieved international renown as the “Queen of Suspense”.
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Nicholas Sparks got his start as a writer almost literally by accident. While recovering from an injury to his Achilles tendon in college, his mother suggested that he write a book to pass the time. By the end of the summer, he had completed his first novel, and although it was never published, just the accomplishment of finishing it got him thinking about a career as a writer. After graduating with high honors from Notre Dame in 1988, he married his wife, Cathy, and they settled in Sacramento, where he wrote his second novel (which again was never published). For the next three years, he worked a variety of jobs, before starting his own small manufacturing business. He continued to put off pursuing his writing full-time, however, until 1994, when over a period of six months he wrote “The Notebook”. He was still selling pharmaceuticals to support his family and writing in the evenings from nine until midnight, as well as one day on the weekends. Ten months later, Warner Books bought the rights to “The Notebook” for $1,000,000. It spent 56 weeks on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list and another 54 weeks on the paperback best-seller list. He has since written nine more novels, and in 2004, his first non-fiction work, “Three Weeks with my Brother”. All were domestic and international best sellers and three of them have been adapted into major motion pictures (“Message in a Bottle”, starring Kevin Costner, Paul Newman, and Robin Wright Penn; “A Walk to Remember” ; and most recently, “The Notebook”).
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Jack McKeon grew up during the Depression in South Amboy, New Jersey, dreaming of being a big league ballplayer. He listened to Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees games on the radio and formed his own team in the neighborhood when he was ten. His father started a local Boys’ Club team during World War II and he played all over New Jersey, eventually developing into a big league prospect as a catcher. He was later signed to a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates and began his career with the Greenville Pirates in the Alabama State League. After five undistinguished years in the minors, McKeon realized that if he couldn’t make it to the big leagues as a player, then he would make it as a manager. In 1955, he was appointed player-manager of the Fayetteville Highlanders in the Carolina League and began a steady climb up the baseball ladder. His first job managing in the majors was with the Kansas City Royals in 1973, but he was fired after only two years. He later worked in the front office of the Oakland A’s and managed the team for parts of both the 1977 and 1978 seasons. During the 1980s, he served as the Vice President for Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres, earning the nickname “Trader Jack” for his penchant for multi-player trades. He returned to the bench as the manager of the Padres in 1988, but was replaced during the 1990 season. From there, he went to work in the front office of the Cincinnati Reds, before being asked to manage the team during the 1997 season. He was named National League Manager of the Year in 1999, but was inexplicably fired the following season. After being out of the game for two years, he was asked to manage the Florida Marlins two months into the 2003 season and led them to the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees in six games.
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