Sonja Christopher, who designed history as the very first human being voted off “Survivor” and the 1st lesbian contestant, died Friday. She was 87.
“Sonya [sic] was 1 of the kindest folks to ever enjoy Survivor. Each individual interaction I experienced with her around the decades was lovely,” “Survivor” host Jeff Probst, 62, reported in a assertion Saturday on the show’s official Instagram web page.
“She would generally greet you with a smile on her experience and joy in her coronary heart. I’m honored that our paths acquired to cross,” he additional.
Born on Jan. 28, 1937, in Olympia, Washington, Christopher was a 63-12 months-aged tunes therapist and breast most cancers survivor when she competed on the initially season, “Survivor: Borneo.”
She at the time claimed she was impressed to audition following enduring a three-day outside training method for breast most cancers survivors.
She struggled with the initial problem, with Probst snuffing out her torch on working day a few — but not right before she played the ukulele and sang the “therapist’s version” of “Bye Bye Blues” to Richard Hatch, who went on to gain the time.
At the time, she claimed that getting the initial castoff was “a little humiliating.”
Inevitably, she was equipped to make gentle of being the to start with to get the axe.
“If somebody acknowledges me — which is nothing at all like it made use of to be — and asks, ‘Weren’t you on ‘Survivor’?’, I’ll say, ‘Yes, I have the doubtful difference of getting the initial human being ever voted off ‘Survivor,” she recalled to Entertainment Weekly in 2020 for the 20th anniversary of her period. “Now, how lots of persons can say that? I think it’s rather funny.”
Just after her change on “Survivor,” she appeared on an episode of Dick Van Dyke’s “Diagnosis: Murder” as perfectly as “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “The Daily Display.”
Enjoyment Weekly reports that a result in of dying was not disclosed.
