By Patricia Breakey
WALTON _ A former Walton woman accumulated $68,000 in four wins on the game show Jeopardy!' before her streak ended Friday.
Christine Valada, 58, graduated from Walton Central High School in 1969. She was home this summer for her 40th class reunion, according to her mother, former Walton Town Clerk Theresa Valada.
On the Hometown Howdies section of the Jeopardy!' website, Valada said she is from Walton and recommended that people "tune in to see what I learned hanging out at the Ogden Free Library."
Valada said by phone Thursday night that she couldn't discuss the show until her final appearance aired, and she could not reveal on how many shows she appeared.
On Friday's show, Valada failed to answer the Final Jeopardy question in the category "Presidential Names." Although her two opponents got the question wrong, Valada finished as a runner-up to Chris Rodrigues of Massachusetts, who was named champion.
On Valada's debut Monday, she won $15,201, defeating the returning champion by a margin of $101. She went on to win $21,001 Tuesday and $9,600 Wednesday in a tight match in which she trailed the leader during much of the game. On Thursday, she was tied with another player at $9,600 when Final Jeopardy began, and won with a total of $14,300 when she answered correctly and he didn't.
Valada and her husband, Len Wein, live in Woodland Hills, Calif. She is a photographer, lawyer, administrative analyst and a photo instructor at Pierce College.
Wein is a comic-book writer and editor known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, among other projects.
On Oct. 23, Wein posted a blog at lenwein.blogspot.com titled "I'll Take my Wife for a Million, Alex!"
Wein wrote: "As I may have mentioned a time or two before on this here blog, my lovely wife Christine and I are Jeopardy! addicts. We watch the program religiously. When we're home, we revel in it. When we're out, we Tivo it so we can revel in it when we get home. We take enormous pride in the fact that we can count an astonishing number of former Jeopardy! champions among our dearest friends."
"In short, we are, as the always-charming Bob Harris titled his wonderful book on the subject, hopeless Prisoners of Trebeckistan.'
"Christine has spent a lot of time and effort studying for the program and, so long as the categories don't include subjects like The History of Lint or Things Only Len and Other Geeks Would Know, my money is on her."
In April, a fire at Valada and Wein's California home caused extensive damage. On Thursday's appearance, Valada said she planned to use some of her winnings to replace books and artworks lost in the fire.
Theresa Valada said she has been inundated with phone calls from friends, neighbors and relatives who have been watching Christine's progress on the show.
She said she spoke to Christine after Monday night's show aired, but has no idea how long her winning streak will be.
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