Early Years
Raphael was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1935 and graduated from Easton Area High School. She also spent a great deal of time in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where her father, Jesse Lowenthal, was in the rum exporting business and her mother, Dede Lowry (née Raphael), an artist, ran an art gallery. She also spent part of her teenage years in Scarsdale, New York, where one of her first media jobs was at the local AM radio station, WFAS. The station had a program by and for junior high school students and Raphael read the news. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico. Raphael studied Acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at New York City’s prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse.
She earned a BFA from Columbia University in New York City, although some sources say her degree was in journalism. She also told an interviewer for CBS Marketwatch.com in 2001 that she had a master's degree from the University of Puerto Rico. At one point, she thought about becoming an actress but ultimately decided to go into broadcasting.
Read more about this topic: Sally Jessy Raphael
Famous quotes related to early years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)