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Randle: That was very gracious of you. What ended up happening after you left Channel 8?
Humphreys: Well, about six minutes after I got fired, Ron Chapman (who I still believe is the best
radio man Dallas has ever had) called me about doing a guest spot for the KVIL traffic helicopter.
So I did, and my first report was probably the worst report anyone had ever heard. People had to
pull off the road because they were laughing so hard, and that kind of landed me the job. When
the real traffic reporter decided to leave, I took over that spot, and I flew in that chopper for three
years.
Right after I took the job, I married Tom Mayo and became pregnant. So there I was, flying in the
chopper six months pregnant, and the chopper went down right over Preston Road. I had just
gotten out of the helicopter right before, but nobody knew that. The chopper went down, and the
pilot, Elliot Cohn, was killed, and people thought I was killed as well. But that happened on a
Friday, and I was back in the helicopter that next Tuesday.
After that, they moved me to afternoons, and that show was a really big hit. People really seemed
to like me, I think, because I really just said whatever came into my head. To the viewers, I was
everybody's wife, daughter, and child. I ended up working for KVIL for 20 years.
In the meantime, I started speaking, and I did a speech called "Life is What Happens to You When
You're Busy Making Other Plans." It was about being tired and broke, and all the good that came
from that. Because with every devastation comes a creation. When you don't get what you want,
you always have to work until you're good. You may not believe it, but it's true. If you miss the
mark, so what? You learn from it. That's what we're here for. If you learn from a mistake, how can
it really be a failure?
Around that time, my husband [Tom Mayo] wanted to move to Fredericksburg, and I had been [in
Dallas] for over 20 years, so I was ready to leave.
Wood: That's a great way to look at things. How does that kind of thinking help with your
speaking?
Humphreys: I've never written out a speech. I'm a performer, and I have a mind that just kind of
organizes things for me. I can look at another speaker and say, "Show me what you've got." Then I
can tell them how to re-arrange their stories and figure out which ones they should wrap things
up with. I have that kind of mind. I don't know how I got that way? It's just how God made me.
Wood: Do you think that is something that can be taught? Or is it something you're just born
with?