Darva Conger

About Darva Conger

Andy Warhol once famously opined that "in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." (You may have read about that.) Later, Dennis Miller quipped that a lot of people couldn't even fill out the 15. Well, Darva Conger proved the former right and the latter pretty much wrong, as she did a pretty creditable job of filling out her allotted 15.

Darva is what has become known as a "television personality" here in her native U.S., which I suppose as a trend started with the Gabor sisters (if not sooner, in fact), ever since she was selected as a winner in 2000's WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE? , in which a number of pantingly greedy females competed for the affections of a man they were only allowed to see in silhouette; it was a bit like THE DATING GAME on steroids.

Rather predictably, in all honesty, the show, the issues it raised, and the marriage that it produced all fell apart both swiftly and acrimoniously. She had the marriage annulled rapidly even before the corpse of the year 2000 was put into the ground, and their few public appearances "together" since have been more or less a slapfight of claims and counterclaims that only underscore the opinions of those who question the intelligence of anyone who thinks that a television program is a good vehicle for selecting one's life-partner. AS IF!

As I studied the background, however, an interesting portrait of Darva herself emerged. First of all, she is the daughter of the U.S. actress, Susan Harrison. She studied nursing at Southern Illinois University at both its Edwardsville and Carbondale campuses, graduating MAGNA CUM LAUDE (helpful note: Only SUMMA is higher).

She served for 10 years in the USAF in both active duty and the reserves. She filled out her term at Hill AFB in UT and at Scott AFB near St. Louis, but also in Korea. There, she was a medical services specialist who went on to become staff sergeant.

In 2003, she had a somewhat-better-fated marriage to one Jim Arellano, a physician assistant, that lasted until 2009. She had one son by him, Cassius. She and her son now live in northern CA, where she works as a nurse anesthesiologist. (In light of recent weather trends there, I hope they are both faring well.)

TRIVIA: Around the time of the big media flap around the show and the annulment, she also decided to pose nude for PLAYBOY; I hope she was paid well because of course it only added more fuel to the fire. She has also faced off in a CELEBRITY BOXING match against former Olympian Olga Korbut, which she won by unanimous decision on 22 May 2002.

(She is one of the more-difficult celebrities to find information about online, but if I turn up more interesting tidbits, rest assured that I'll post them here.)

This article was drawn exclusively from information found at WIKIPEDIA.
Submitted by your faithful correspondent, DDT, in 2023.
Now back to you, JIm.