Former TV star shares her workout
DALLAS — On a recent Monday, Nella Pitts Phillips walked 18,383 steps. On the following Friday, she walked 16,913. Pick any day during the last five years, and she can tell you how many steps it contained. Most she takes before 7 a.m.; many of those she collects while walking up and down driveways, carrying to porches the newspapers she sees on lawns.
"I walk as a ministry for helping others," says Nella, who wears one pedometer. "I go quite a long way. I have a certain route I follow. I pick up the newspaper and take it to the door. When I put it there, even though no one hears me, I say, 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and for the love of Jesus, I present you with the paper."'
Nella started walking outdoors when her doctor suggested she get off her treadmill and go outside.
"At first it was just up and down the block and back home," says Nella, who lives in North Dallas. "Then I decided to walk a little farther. With the newspapers, I feel I can be of help in some way."
Seven days a week, rain or shine, she's out before dawn, delivering newspapers, unfurling twisted porch flags ("so they can fly free" she explains) and reaching into her pockets for dog treats to give canines she encounters.
She doesn't like to listen to music or the radio when she's walking. Instead, she prays. She practices the book reviews she presents, often dressed as such historical figures as Will Rogers, to various groups and organizations."They say if you do something six times, it will be on your brain," she says. "I practice 30, 100 times before I perform something."Were you to walk past her one day and hear her talking, you might think "Hmm. That voice sounds familiar."It always tickles her, because 38 years have passed since she was Miss Vicki on WFAA-TV's Romper Room. From September 1969 to May 1972, 30 minutes a day, five days a week, she read stories and played games on the air with 5-year-olds. She loved encouraging children to be Do Bees ("Do Bee a bed-maker") instead of Don't-Bees ("Don't Bee a bed-jumper")."I've had the best life," she says, almost whispering. "Oh Leslie, I just can't tell you. I am so blessed."
