
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 5, 1993                   TAG: 9307050015
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEOPLE

By the time 15 firemen came to get her, Carol Yager, of Flint, Mich., hadn't walked in nine months. She hadn't left her bedroom in the two months before rescuers rolled her in a tent tarp, maneuvered her out the front door and slid her down the hill to an ambulance.

When she was admitted to Hurley Medical Center in January, Yager weighed 1,189 pounds, said hospital spokeswoman Beth O'Grady. That's far more than the heaviest woman listed in the Guinness Book of Records - Rosie Carnemolla of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., registered a peak weight of 850 pounds in March 1988.

Yager, 34, has already lost almost 500 pounds. She was scheduled to be released from the hospital this week.

Before her admission, Yager was dependent on nurses and her 14-year-old daughter Heather to take care of all her needs. She said she is determined to continue with her weight-loss program, "Because Heather deserves it. Because I deserve it."

The Irish are screaming, "Enough, already!" to Sinead O'Connor and her family, who have been airing their dysfunctions in the newspapers.

The latest O'Connor to do so is brother Joseph, who followed his sister's plea to the public to "stop hurting me, please" with a treatise confirming that their mother subjected her children to "extreme and violent abuse, both emotional and physical."

First brother Roger Clinton has won his second Hollywood film role. He'll co-star as one Mayor Bubba in "Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings."

Billy Dee Williams understands why Charles Barkley doesn't want to be a role model. "I don't like being a role model. I think that's too much responsibility," the actor said.

Barkley has been criticized for a television commercial in which the Phoenix Suns star declares: "I'm not paid to be a role model. I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court." Williams said young people should be looking for guidance from their families, not from people like him or Barkley.

Williams made his comments during a news conference at Indianapolis' Indiana Black Expo.

by CNB