The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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Local fans of the CBS “Survivor” series may recognize one of the contestants when the season opens on Thursday with “Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands.”

Former Emporian Debbie Staton Beebe, 46, spent part of last fall on location, filming the series.

The daughter of John and Connie Staton, Beebe was born in Wichita and grew up in Emporia from about 1964 to 1978, when she moved with her parents to Chicago at the end of her last year at Lowther Junior High.

“My best childhood memories are definitely in Emporia, Kan.,” Beebe said during a telephone interview last week.

She attended Butcher and Village elementary schools and Lowther Junior High School while her father worked for Science Research & Associates and her mother taught at William Allen White Elementary School.

The young girl spent considerable time with her aunt and uncle, Ruth and Gene Bloxom, and their daughter, Annie, who seemed like a sister to Debbie Staton, who was an only child.

Her best friend then and a friend still is Pam Longbine, with whom she used to ride bicycles to school. The Longbines lived near the Staton family’s home on Trowman Way, and Jim and Helen Pickert and their children lived down the street, she said.

One of the Pickert children, Brian, surprised Beebe not long ago when he spotted her in an Atlanta airport.

“He walked up to me and said, ‘Are you Debbie Staton?’” she said, laughing that someone from her childhood could track her down in Atlanta.

Her present brush with fame, however, has made her face recognizable in the Auburn, Ala. area, where her upcoming appearance on Survivor has brought her more attention than she could have imagined.

As a middle-school principal who makes presentations at national conventions and works with Auburn University extensively, she said she’s accustomed to public speaking.

“Once the press release came out and people knew, it pretty much went crazy around here,” said Beebe. “It’s kind of fun right now. ...I’m not used to cameras being on me 24/7, but other than that, I’m kind of a ham. It doesn’t bother me.”

Beebe was not allowed to talk much about the “Survivor: Tocantins” episodes, other than basic information from before the trip to Brazil.

All of the contestants were at the site for the duration; no one comes back early, no matter how soon they’re voted out by other competitors. All return at the same time and with no option but to keep their finishes secret until the series plays itself out on television.

Beebe, however, was allowed to talk about other aspects of her background and her current life in a telephone interview from her office at Drake Middle School at Auburn, where she is in her 11th year as principal. In 2007-08, she was chosen as Alabama Principal of the Year, according to information from the show.

Beebe had long wanted to be a “Survivor.”

“I actually applied for Season 2 of Survivor,” Beebe said. “When it first came out I was obsessed with the show, and for various reasons was not selected to participate.”

She was surprised, then, when she was contacted in September last year with an offer to try for the upcoming session in Brazil.

“I’m not exactly sure how they found me,” she said.

She did a telephone interview, submitted a video and went to Los Angeles for a face-to-face interview the second week of September.

“They just asked a lot of general questions, exploring who I was and what kind of personality I had,” Beebe said.

The video she submitted as part of the application process provided a little insight into her personality.

“It’s just kind of silly — talking about myself, the DARE office was involved, and some kids,” she said. “It’s kind of funny. Upbeat and funny. I like to look for the good in things. ...

“In my opinion, life isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is all we’ve got. You live it to the fullest and enjoy it to the max.”

Beebe described herself as someone who loves the outdoors but definitely is not an outdoors person.

“I haven’t camped since probably I was 8,” she said.

One of her 908 middle-school students, James, substantiated her claim as he was being interviewed for a news program in Alabama.

“James said, ‘Oh my God, she’s more like a Barbie in the mall than somebody who’d be on Survivor,’” Beebe said.

However, she has been a competitive gymnast, a college cheerleader, and is a proponent of staying fit.

“To me, I do have an adventurous spirit and to me, Survivor is the ultimate adventure,” Beebe said. “It’s classy, it’s hard, it’s definitely going to put me to the test.”

She didn’t worry about eating worms or any of the other exotic foods Survivors have been forced to swallow.

“I really didn’t,” she said. “I can plug my nose and eat anything.”