Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - She is the self-described country girl who made it big and loved every minute of it.
For over fifteen years, she was the most talked about and recognized personality on TV in Louisville. From singing and dancing to cutting a country album, you could call the performing her side job.
She debuted on the air in 1973 at Channel 32 doing 'Eyewitness Weather.' She was hired by WHAS in 1977 to kick off and be the first co-host of 'Louisville Tonight,' a local magazine program. She was last seen on TV in Louisville in 1988, hosting PM Magazine with Terry Meiners.
For the past several years, I've been asked by viewers, 'Where's Ange?' After finding her living in Evansville, she came to visit WHAS. It was the first time she had walked down our hallways since 1988. She told me, 'I loved my years here on TV. It was so much fun! It gave me a new layer for myself as a performer on TV. I'd been doing the weather, country girl thing which was just me being myself.'
Viewers loved her. When I asked her how many marriage proposals she received while on TV in Louisville, she laughed and said, 'a few [and] unfortunately I accepted too many, Doug. Personally I made some terrible decisions relationship wise and that always costs you.'
She has been married five times and turns 60-years-old this year. Ange's now been married for nine years to George Relyea and says it is her best partnership.
After all of the turmoil in her life, she is now a reverend in the Baptist church. She turned to the ministry after one of her marriages became turbulent. She told me that, 'it was a powerful relationship and I don't know how else to describe it, just very powerful. It was one of those love-hate things that say love and hate run side by side, lots of passion and a lot of drama, a lot of excitement, and I survived.'
At one point she had to move back in with her parents, children in tow. She needed a major life overhaul. It got to the point with marriages, she told me, that she did not think she would be accepted in the ministry. But they welcomed her and now, ironically, she presides over weddings at her Baptist church in Evansville.
The tumultuous experience she had with men in her life now helps her connect with young women in trouble, 'because I spend so much time with people in despair, I tell them, 'hold on, hold on.'' When asked about the lows in her life she responded, 'Several. Several lows. But they didn't take me out, didn't take me out.'
In her life and on TV in Louisville, 'I never lost hope that life could be this good.'
Why was she so popular on TV? It was those homegrown, country sayings from 'my younguns', to, 'night, night.' It was the simple way she signed off every night; leaving folks until another day, with a, 'have a goodun, everybody.'
She grew up in Rumsey, Kentucky, on the Green River southwest of Owensboro. 'There was always music and laughter. Everybody wanted to be at our house,' she recalls.
In college she was named Miss Murray State.
Today she has two children and two granddaughters.
The corny sayings she would use at the start of her TV career were all real and were what her grandmother would actually say about the weather. A few examples include, 'when you see a spotted hot wallerin' under a catalpa tree, it's gonna rain,' 'you see a pig with a stick in its mouth, it's going to storm,' and 'cows are lying down and the leaves are turned over, there's gonna be a storm.'
At WHAS she met our 11 p.m. producer Erin Sweitzer, the daughter of one of her 'Louisville Tonight' photographers who had a photo album for her. 'We had such a good time, we really did,' she remembers.
Before she left, we had to ask for her famous good bye, one more time. 'Hope tomorrow's a goodun for you!' For Ange Humphrey, you know it will be.
P.S. From Doug: Thanks to our viewers who over the years have emailed me asking that I find Ange Humphrey for a story. This is why we did this story. Like a lot of you, I grew up watching her in the 1970's and my family always liked her. It was fun for me to see her for the first time since I was an intern at WHAS in 1977.
