UPDATE 02.17.2011
Ralph Kiser, the Russell County man competing on the CBS series Survivor: Redemption Island appeared to come through Wednesday’s premiere episode well.
“When I seen a big box of nails and all that, I loved it,” said Kiser, after being shown leading his tribe to camp and helping to carry a box of tools. “I’ve camped, I’ve built cabins, I’ve done all this kind of stuff. If they listen to me, I believe we can build a decent shack.”
A standout in his camouflage overalls, he leads the group in shelter construction, then helps the tribe to victory by hacking quickly through a set of ropes in the show’s first immunity challenge.
His comment at the beginning of the episode: “We ain’t never had a dumb--- to win the game ever. Maybe it’s my time.”
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When Southwest Virginian Ralph Kiser makes his television debut on tonight’s Survivor premiere, he’ll have a lot of local fans watching.
Among them will be Deborah Icenhour, who was his teacher in Lebanon High School some 25 years ago.
“He brought me a pair of geese,” Icenhour explained of the young man who’d already established himself as a farmer by the time he was in his teens. “I named them Ralph and Violet ... he brought me four chickens, and one of them laid eggs in the classroom.”
Around Easter, he asked her if she’d like anything.
“I said I’d like to have a real rabbit – as a joke,” Icenhour said. “Well, it came the next day, in a sack on the bus. Its name was Bunny Lou Ellen.”
Ralph the goose became sort of a “watch gander” at her home, responding aggressively to anyone who appeared to pose a threat, she said.
Ralph the student was “a great kid” who graduated and went on to work for Hapco, where he’s worked ever since.
Years later, he still keeps in touch; Icenhour said he called to let her know that he’d been selected for Survivor and that he’d survived it.
“He’s always had an excellent attendance and work ethic, and he has certain values he honors,” Icenhour said of Kiser. “I really admire him because he persevered in several ways. He kept going back for those [Survivor] interviews and kept the faith that they would pick him, and so they have. And he’s not afraid to be himself, and I think we’re probably going to see that very clearly tonight. So I’m going to be right there [watching].”
While no one knows yet how he did in the Reality TV competition, she predicts, “I think we’ll be very happy with the outcome.”
dmccown@bristolnews.com ll 276.791.0701
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