The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest FloridaLee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
Gloria Gaynor. (Credit: CBS Sunday Morning) A Nashville studio may seem an unlikely place for the “Queen of Disco,” but the voice is unmistakably Gloria Gaynor’s. Four decades after her signature song “I Will Survive” hit #1 and became an anthem of endurance, the 69-year-old singer’s new album, “Testimony,” is her own tale of survival. “It’s not a sound people are necessarily accustomed to with you,” said correspondent Anthony Mason. “No, no. But you know I’ve been telling people for 40 years I will survive. I think it’s time I told them how,” she said. When asked to describe her childhood, Gaynor replied, “Happy. Poor, but happy. I realized in later years that children don’t realize they’re poor as long as they’re loved.” One of seven children, Gloria Fowles (Gaynor is her stage name) grew up in Newark, New Jersey. She was devoted to her mother. But when she was 12, she says, her mom’s boyfriend molested her. She didn’t want to tell her mother what had happened: “No, I didn’t want to tell her because I believed that she would kill him. So, yeah, I just kept it to myself.” “What was the price of keeping it to yourself?” asked Mason. “A feeling of unworthiness, insecurity; that was the price,” Gaynor replied. “I was constantly going through one bad so-called relationship after another, right up and to and through my marriage.” Music was always Gaynor’s salvation. Her five brothers didn’t want a girl singing with them. But one day a neighbor noticed. “I was standing in the hallway and I started singing. And she said, ‘Gloria, was that you singing?’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ She said, ‘My goodness, I thought that was the radio.’ And I thought, wow, I could do this. I could do this. I’m gonna be a singer!” To watch Gloria Gaynor perform “Never Can Say Goodbye” click on the video player below. In 1975, she rode the disco wave into the Top 10 of the pop charts. “Never Can Say Goodbye” and a string of dance hits (such as “Do It Yourself” and “Reach Out, I’ll Be There”) led DJs to crown her “The Queen of Disco.” But a few years later, at New York’s Beacon Theatre, she had a bad fall on stage. She finished the show, but woke up the next morning paralyzed from the waist down. “Just couldn’t move my legs, my hips, nothing,” she said. What was she thinking?” “I was thinking, I’m going to die,” she said. She was in the hospital from March 15 to July 3. Gaynor recovered, but when she went in to record her next single, “Substitute,” she was in a back brace. The label needed something for the flip side of the record. The writers had a suggestion: “I Will Survive,” which they wrote out on a paper bag. “Yeah, they didn’t have it with them, so they wrote it down,” Gaynor recalled. “I said, ‘What are you nuts? You’re gonna put this on the B side? This is a timeless lyric!” The label refused to promote “I Will Survive.” But Gaynor didn’t let that stop her. She brought the record to Studio 54, to give to the DJ: “We gave him a whole case of them and told him to give them to his DJ friends all around New York. And he did that. And they began to play it. And then people began to request it. That’s how it caught fire.” A fire that carried it all the way to #1 in 1979, and won Gaynor the first and only Grammy ever awarded for Best Disco Recording. Gloria Gaynor performs “I will Survive”: But at the peak of her success, she said, she “lost my compass. I really, really did. And I started trying to be with the in-crowd and bowing to peer pressure.” She hit bottom at a drug-fueled party one night. “I felt God’s hand grab me in my collar and pull me up like that and said, ‘That’s enough.'” The problem, she realized, was her own self-esteem. Mason asked, “How did you come to that realization, do you think?” “Through my faith,” she said. “If I’m worthy of love of Almighty God, creator of heaven and Earth, who are you? And I also recognized that I’m not better than anyone else. But I’ll be darned if anybody’s better than me!” Her famous anthem began to have a more personal meaning – and, she adds, it never gets old. “No, it’s always my favorite song in the show to sing … until now!” she laughed. Now, her favorite is “Amazing Grace.” “Because it’s as much my story as ‘I Will Survive.'” By sharing her story with her fans, Gloria Gaynor says, “I’m giving them something that is going to last beyond the duration of my concert.” “It’s interesting when you give something of yourself that’s very personal to you. But it’s also a gift to them,” said Mason. “It’s a gift to me,” she said. “I always leave my concerts, ‘You got as much out of this as I did.'” To hear Gloria Gaynor perform “Amazing Grace” click on the video player below. For more info: “Testimony” by Gloria Gaynor (Gaither Music Group), available June 7 on CD (Amazon, Barnes & Noble), and Digital Download (Amazon, Google Play, iTunes) Follow @GloriaGaynor on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram gloriagaynor.com Tour information