KYLE OLDHAM

Born May 31st, 1960, Kyle Kathleen Aletter was immediately a press darling. She really had no choice as her parents were “the” Hollywood couple of the moment. Dad Frank Aletter was at the time starring in his TV series “Bringing Up Buddy” and mom Lee Meriwether was a former Miss America, “Today” show alumni, and already accumulating an impressive resume in Hollywood.

It didn’t take long for Kyle to get into the game as she made her debut on her father’s series “Bringing Up Buddy” when she was nine months old. Her mother played a nurse in a doctor’s office and carried her across the waiting room.

She took a break from acting until she was 17 when she appeared on her mother’s popular TV series “Barnaby Jones.” A few national commercials followed as well as appearances on “Love Boat,” “Finder of Lost Loves” and one of her personal favorites, playing Jason Robard’s daughter in the highly acclaimed Movie Of The Week, “The Day After.”

It was about this time, in the early 1980’s that at the urging of a friend went along to a taping of “The Price is Right.” Kyle was chosen to be a contestant and once she was picked to go on stage, someone on staff recognized her last name, put two and two together, and realized who her parents were. It turned out that one of the shows executive assistants had gone to school with Kyle’s mother and called to find out if Kyle would be interested in modeling on “The Price is Right.” Yes, please.

She was originally going to be hired to replace Holly Hallstrom who was going to leave the show, but she changed her mind and then that began what would turn out to be an “on and off” run for 14 years. If the regular models were sick or out of town, Kyle would step in. Those was some of the “best times I’ve ever had. Everyone couldn’t have been nicer. I loved Bob Barker, still do, the man was genius at what he did and I couldn’t have had more fun with him. He knew my background, was friends with my mom, and knew I could handle any ‘ad-libbing’ he would throw my way. It was hard work, believe it or not, but I had a ton of fun.”

In between all those years on Price, Kyle was grateful to have work on stage as well. “The Gingerbread Lady” with her mother, “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” and “The Artful Lodgers” to name a few. There was also a very impressive act on “Circus of The Stars” with her mother hanging neck to neck 40 feet in the air. Training everyday for 3 months was the only way to get ready for that one.

Speaking of the circus, there was a boyfriend that worked for Ringling Brothers and she was lucky enough after high school to travel to Australia for 3 months and Japan for 4 months. Blessed to have that experience due to many residuals from those national commercials! And yes, she flew on the trapeze!

Of course, most of that all came to a halt when Kyle got married in 1992, took on the last name of Oldham, and in December of 1993 gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Ryan. Although raising Ryan became her primary focus, Kyle still enjoyed working and found another career doing makeup for friends and weddings and working as a makeup artist in Nordstrom. But in 2001 she found a part time job working at a very large insurance company and has continued working there to this day.

It’s a family owned business, great health benefits and the part time aspect allows her family time with Ryan as she has been divorced since 2005. “I decided to keep my married name as it is my daughter’s last name and I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t want that name just because I wasn’t married to him anymore. It’s her name and it’s mine too.” The additional time also allows her to assist her mother with her business endeavors, and the schedule always ramps up right after the holidays as we gear up for The Miss America Pageant.

“With mom continuing to be involved as often as possible with the pageant, and the fact that she is a very popular Miss America, she is a draw when we are there. We go to Las Vegas in January for the entire week of preliminaries and the final live telecast on Saturday evening. The days are filled with press conferences, luncheons, book signings and mingling with the current contestants. I watch her year after year, and I am always amazed at her grace, her giving of her time and her gift of never saying no. This pageant is so important to her, to us that we make sure we can spread the word of how special this program is to young women everywhere. It’s a scholarship pageant people; the girls don’t win ‘cash and prizes’ like that other pageant. We have been so lucky to have relationships with most of the former Miss America’s and a lot of the past contestants, too. Amazing role models…all of them.”

Kyle also is an active volunteer at her church, because she realizes all the gifts and blessings she has in her life would never be possible without the love of the Lord in her life.