Lucky Crowd Meets TV Spokeswoman

My face was 10 inches from a luxuriant potted palm and I was gazing into its green midsection, not one of the better seats from which to see the speaker.

It was the last meeting of the year of the Desert Celebrity Luncheons, a group of women who meet once a month at the Morningside Country Club to hear inspirational speakers and have a wonderful lunch while looking out on the rolling golf course.

The speaker this time was Stephanie Edwards, and I wanted to hear her. We had worked together occasionally when she was with Ralph Story on KABC’s “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles,” which was the template for most of the early morning shows.

My job at that time for the Nixon Administration was to arrange the media schedules for U.S. Cabinet secretaries when they were in the West. I always tried to set them with the Story show because I knew they would be asked intelligent questions and be treated like people instead of like lunch meat.

Stephanie Edwards was introduced and promptly announced that she was 47 years old. She is a beautiful, tall woman with skin like Devonshire cream and aquamarine eyes.

She grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm and went to St. Olaf’s College and the University of Minnesota. She came to Hollywood to become an actress, as did an almanac full of pretty girls from small towns and big cities. Edwards was well-educated and intelligent but “without an ounce of competitive spirit,” she said.

She went to KNXT and applied for a job with Ralph Story, thinking that might be a way to break into television. “He told me he didn’t think I’d succeed as an actress, but he hired me as a researcher. In a short time he invited me to do the show with him. It was marvelous. He is the master.”

Story retired from television in 1986. Edwards is now seen often on TV as the spokeswoman for Lucky supermarkets.

“If fans don’t see people, they’re sure they’re dead,” Edwards said. “Ralph is wonderfully alive and living with his wife, Diana, in the gorgeous Santa Ynez Valley, in the horse country.”

Edwards’ life is firmly grounded in spiritual values, of which she speaks openly.

“I am in a business where they get rid of the women when they’re about 30. Too old. It is also a business in which 2% of the personnel are working at any given time.

“I am keeping my nails short and my typing skills up against the day when they decide I am no longer needed by Lucky markets.”

Asked how much money she makes, she said, “Television has distorted American culture.”

Edwards said that television is the most influential force in the world today. I’m sure she’s right, and it scares me. Edwards’ concern is that young people believe what they see on the television screen and think they can have whatever they want in half an hour without, spending any time learning a craft or a skill.

She said, “One girl asked me if I would help her get the job she wanted and when I asked her what it was, she said, ‘Yours.’ ”

People are surprised that Edwards pushes her own grocery cart in Lucky markets and writes a check for the groceries, just as everyone else does.

Stephanie Edwards has made 15 appearances on “The Tonight Show” and done three network series, two films, guest appearances and summer stock as well as public television.

She and Bob Eubanks are my favorite team for the telecast of the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena every New Year’s Day. They have done the flowery chore 10 times for Channel 5.

She is married to actor-composer Murray MacLeod, and they live in Santa Monica.

She was a smash with her audience.

I know I will never look like Stephanie Edwards when I trundle one of those square-wheeled carts around my market, which is not Lucky. Maybe that’s the trouble.

The palm tree? Oh, green and thick with branches covered with pointed leaves.