I hope you will bear with this long post. There's a good reason for it! I'm sure you all remember the lovely young woman who played Hannah Carter in the first-season TAGS episode called "A Feud is a Feud." Her name is Tammy Windsor. Those of you who have been a member of WBMUTBB? for several years may recall a controversy involving Tammy back in 2008. Someone wrote to the digest saying he had done some research on the web for info about Tammy and found that she also went by the name Karyn Kupcinet and was the victim of an unsolved murder in 1963. Well, it would be very sad to think that our charming Hannah had died a tragic death at such a young age, so I decided to check it out for myself. I wound up finding a man who was in the process of writing a biography of Karyn Kupcinet in collaboration with Karyn's niece. I figured he would certainly know if Tammy and Karyn were one and the same, so I wrote to him. He replied that Karyn Kupcinet never went by the name Tammy Windsor, e xplaining that the rumor that they were the same person was started by someone who posted it on the Internet (I think Wikipedia and IMDB). Afterwards, it was picked up by different people and took on a life of its own (you know, like in "Those Gossipin' Men"). So I wrote to the digest with this information, hoping to put the rumor to rest, at least in our little corner of Mayberry. Some were skeptical, asking why Tammy Windsor herself didn't come forward and deny the rumor. We speculated on various possibilities, but that's as far as it went. The rumor popped up again on the digest in 2010. I again posted the info from 2008. You can see my various posts in the mail archive here: http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=wbmutbb@wbmutbb.com&q=janet+anderson+tammy+windsor&submit.x=0&submit.y=0 Fast forward to three days ago. I found a message in my inbox from someone named Sandra DeBear with the subject line "Tammy Windsor." The message said that she was still very much alive and was the mother of two and the grandmother of four. She said that after doing some TV shows, she joined a musical comedy group and toured, then did some nightclub work and TV commercials and ended her career as a commercial casting director. She thought that the TAGS episode "A Feud is a Feud" was her first TV show. She didn't know how she got connected with the actress Karyn Kupcinet, and she thanked me for setting the record straight. Well, you can imagine that I was rather dumbfounded by this! Could this really be Tammy Windsor? How did she know about me, and how did she get my e-mail address? Could this be someone playing a joke on me? So I wrote her back and asked her (not the part about playing a joke, though!). She promptly replied and explained that Sandra DeBear is her real name. She didn't know anything about the mix-up with Karyn Kupcinet until her neighbors tried looking her up on the Internet and found the stories. She said that she thought sometime she ought to contact SAG (Screen Actors Guild) about it but didn't think it was a big deal since she'd been out of the business so long. Later, she met a couple of gals while on a cruise, and they were interested to learn of her show business past. One women's sister happened to find my digest posts in the WBMUTBB? mail archive and told her about them. She was curious as to how I happened to write about her. When I searched the archive myself, I realized there is a button at the bottom of the page that enables people to e-mail the person who wrote the post. That's how she was able to send me a message. Okay, this must be the real Tammy Windsor! Imagine how excited I was to hear from her out of the blue! I wrote her back a longer message, giving her the background about our digest posts. I have not received a reply, but I'm hoping she will take the time to write me again. I would love to know more about her career and especially about her experience on TAGS. If I get anything else fr om her, I will let you know. Anyway, this definitively puts to rest the rumor that Tammy Windsor also went by the name Karyn Kupcinet and died under mysterious circumstances in 1963. I'm so glad that proved false and that Tammy/Sandra is still with us! Thelma Lou(Janet) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
