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Kathleen A. "Kathy" Vavrick-O'Brien[1] is a contestant from Survivor: Marquesas and Survivor: All-Stars.

In Marquesas, Kathy was initially the de facto leader of the Rotu tribe, though she rubbed her tribemates the wrong way until she was switched to the rival Maraamu tribe at the Tribe Switch, where she was perceived as more likable, enough for her to gain the trust of Neleh Dennis and Paschal English. Kathy later became a key contestant in the downfall of the Rotu Four alliance by forming a counter-alliance with Neleh, Paschal, Sean Rector, and Vecepia Towery. She was able to make it to the final three, but when Neleh won the Final Immunity Challenge, she voted out Kathy the day before the Final Tribal Council as Neleh thought Kathy was highly likable among the jury.

In All-Stars, Kathy took control of the Mogo Mogo tribe alongside Lex van den Berghe, managing to "bamboozle" the series' first winner, Richard Hatch, and convincing Lex to vote Jerri Manthey out over Amber Brkich, the latter of which would ultimately lead to both of their eliminations after the merge after Rob Mariano reneged on their deal.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has lived in Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, N. Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and San Diego, California. She attended Cohasset High School in Massachusetts before her four years of college at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien currently works as a real estate agent. Prior to this, she was self-employed for 10 years running her small businesses: a unique paper, gifts, and art products store and an event-planning business. She also worked in newspaper advertising. Her favorite hobbies are hiking, skiing, sailing, road-biking and fly-fishing. In 1998, she biked across the United States for the American Lung Association as a dedication to her father. The trip was 48 days from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and raised over $1.5 million.

Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien currently resides in Burlington, Vermont. She has one son, Patrick. Her birth date is Jan. 6.[2]

Since finishing in third place on Survivor: Marquesas, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien began a foundation to help women gain self confidence through outdoor adventure, challenges and risk taking (www.therealfoundation.com). Kathy also has established a new business (R3) to encourage and inspire corporate teams and individuals.

Kathy was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has lived in Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and San Diego. She attended Cohasset High School in Massachusetts before her four years of college at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Kathy currently works as a real estate agent in Northern Vermont. Prior to this, she was self-employed for 10 years running two small businesses: a unique paper, gifts and art products store and an event-planning business. She also worked in newspaper advertising. Her favorite hobbies are hiking, skiing, sailing, road-biking and fly-fishing. In 1998, she biked across the country for the American Lung Association as a dedication to her father. The trip was 48 days from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and raised more than $1.5 million.

Kathy currently resides in Burlington, Vermont. She has one son, Patrick. Her birth date is Jan. 6, 1954.[3]

Survivor[]

Marquesas[]

Kathy was initially the rank outsider on an extremely tight-knit Rotu tribe. She was often seen breaking down in tears in the early portions of the game, and many of her tribemates noting she was the black sheep of the tribe, and did not quite gel as well with the rest. Due to Rotu's dominance in the early challenges though, she remained safe due to never attending a Tribal Council with Rotu triumphing in three consecutive challenges. Then by virtue of the Rotu majority in the Tribe Switch, with Neleh Dennis and Paschal English keeping her protected in both swapped tribe votes, she would make the merge.

Come the swapped tribes and come the merge, Kathy came into her own and developed better social bonds with both the remaining Maraamu players- Rob Mariano, Sean Rector, and Vecepia Towery, and her own former Rotu tribemates. She also was the first to notice the Rotu Four alliance of John Carroll, Tammy Leitner, Zoe Zanidakis, and Robert DeCanio, who had been separated from Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal during the tribe swap. After the final nine Immunity Challenge, where the Rotu Four arrogantly seemed to display the former Rotu alliance pecking order by chopping down the coconuts from ropes in order of the intended boot order to come, she helped to convince Neleh and Paschal to join her in flipping on their former tribe, joining the only two remaining Maraamus Sean Rector and Vecepia Towery in a new five-person alliance. John would be the first to be blindsided, and the remaining Rotu Four members would be Pagonged during the next several Tribal Councils. Kathy did consider interrupting the Pagonging at final six since she knew if Robert was voted out, she would have a tough road to the final three between two pairs in Neleh/Paschal and Sean/Vecepia. Despite that being the case, she stuck with her alliance.

At the final five, tensions mounted at Tribal Council as Sean and Vecepia tried to swing Kathy to join them in ousting her former Rotu tribemate Neleh, stating that Neleh and Paschal were in an unbreakable two person alliance and would not take her to the end. Paschal confirmed this was true, but also countered to Kathy that Sean and Vecepia were also in an unbreakable two person alliance. Sean denied this being true, stating that perhaps this was assumed due to him and Vecepia both being black. Ultimately Kathy was torn, but decided to join Paschal and Neleh in voting out Sean.

At the final four Tribal Council, the intended next boot Vecepia saved herself by winning immunity. Knowing Kathy would be the target by Neleh and Paschal in this situation, she struck a deal with Vecepia. Kathy and Vecepia attempted to split Paschal and Neleh by voting off Neleh. Neleh and Paschal held firm and voted for Kathy, leading to a rock draw tiebreaker. In one of the most controversial events in Survivor history, Paschal drew the purple rock, while Neleh and Kathy both drew yellow rocks, leading to Paschal's boot despite receiving 0 votes both at that Tribal Council and throughout the entire game. Having made a firm Final Two deal with Kathy, Vecepia betrayed this deal when Kathy was the first to drop from the Final Immunity Challenge, making a deal with Neleh they would take each other to the Final Two regardless who won the final immunity. Neleh followed through and voted out her former tribemate Kathy, stating she knew she had a much better chance of winning over Vecepia than she did against Kathy, as Kathy from her rough beginning had become loved by everyone in the game at this point.

Kathy lambasted Vecepia for her betrayal at the Final Immunity Challenge and voted for her former Rotu tribemate Neleh to win. Despite Kathy's vote, Vecepia won the game in a 4-3 vote. At the Reunion Show, it was confirmed Kathy would have easily won against either Vecepia or Neleh in a 6-1 vote, losing only Paschal's vote to Neleh and Sean's vote to Vecepia.

Episode Tribe
Affiliation
Challenge Challenge Type Sit-Out? Result
1 Rotu Outrigger Fire Quest Immunity No Won
2 Float Your Boat Reward No Won
Marquesan Menu Immunity No Won
3 Raft Rescue Reward No Won
Coconut Maze Race Immunity No Won
Switched Tribes, Day 10
4 Maraamu Life's a Tapestry Immunity No Lost
5 Tiki Towers Reward No Won
Distress Signal Immunity No Won
6 Jungle Relay Reward No Won
The Maze Immunity No Lost
Tribes Merged, Day 20
7 Soliantu Sea Legs Immunity Won
8 Go Fly A Kite Reward Won
Parang Swing Immunity Lost
10 Coconut Juice Reward Lost
High Stepping Immunity Lost
11 Rock Bottom Reward Lost
Virtues of Fire Immunity Lost
12 Turtle Roll Reward Won
Sands of Time Immunity Lost
13 Second Chance Reward Lost
Marquesan Folklore Immunity Won
14 Fallen Comrades Immunity Lost
Hard Idol Immunity Lost
Voted Out, Day 38

Episode Kathy's
Votes
Voted Against
Kathy
1 Rotu Tribe Immune
2 Rotu Tribe Immune
3 Rotu Tribe Immune
4 Sarah Sarah
5 Maraamu Tribe Immune
6 Gina Gina
7 Zoe Individual Immunity
8 John -
10 Zoe -
11 Tammy -
12 Robert -
13 Sean Individual Immunity
14 Neleh Neleh, Paschal
Ineligible Neleh
Voted Out, Day 38
Voted for
Sole Survivor
Neleh

All-Stars[]

Kathy returned to Survivor as part of the Mogo Mogo tribe, which found itself divided from the start, as the men and women immediately plotted against one another. After a brief meeting, the tribe agreed to set politicking aside and focus on winning challenges. For the first twelve days, Kathy was in no immediate danger as Mogo Mogo routinely finished second at Immunity Challenges.

On Day 13, a high-stakes Reward Challenge was held, with the last placing tribe to be absorbed by the other two tribes. Mogo Mogo finished first, and chose to take in Ethan Zohn and Jerri Manthey from the dissolved Saboga tribe as new tribe members. Two days later, Kathy and the rest of Mogo Mogo suffered her first immunity loss; and while it would seem the tribe was united enough to continue the ongoing trend of voting out former winners (in this case, Ethan), Kathy and Shii Ann Huang were approached by Lex van den Berghe, who proposed an idea to vote out their tribe's former winner, Richard Hatch, who was perceived as the biggest competition by virtue of being the first Survivor winner. Kathy found herself in the middle all afternoon between two blocs: Hatch and the women who agreed to vote out Colby Donaldson, and the men, who wanted Hatch gone. Ultimately, Kathy and the Mogo Mogo tribe unanimously voted Richard out.

Kathy joined a separate women's alliance consisting of herself, Shii Ann, and Jerri along with being in the main alliance with Lex. The women planned to vote off Colby first for his mistreatment of Jerri in their first season. Later, Jerri convinced Lex to join the women's alliance. When Mogo Mogo lost the Immunity Challenge on Day 19, Kathy was kidnapped by Chapera. She felt very accepted by Chapera and was surprised at the easy going nature of the tribe, in comparison to Mogo Mogo's serious nature. Since Kathy was at Chapera she skipped the Tribal Council where Colby was voted out.

When Kathy returned to Mogo Mogo, she was saddened because her small break from her tribe was over. After receiving Tree Mail saying that the tribe had to send a member from Mogo Mogo to Chapera. Kathy was selected because she had already formed a bond with the tribe. Once again Kathy had a great time at Chapera. Kathy returned to Mogo Mogo after the Reward Challenge. Mogo Mogo failed to win the Immunity Challenge sending Kathy to Tribal Council again. Kathy's alliance targeted Ethan for being the only outsider of the tribe and for being a former winner. Although Ethan was the easy choice, Kathy was approached by Ethan to form a counter alliance and vote out Jerri. At Tribal Council Kathy stuck with her original alliance and Ethan was voted off.

On Day 23, the tribes met with Mogo Mogo and Chapera expecting a merge. Jeff asked the castaways to pair up and have a private chat with one-another. Kathy was paired up with Alicia Calaway. Jeff later revealed that the tribes were not merging, instead they were switching. Kathy, along with all the remaining Mogo Mogo members were all switched to Chapera. Amber Brkich was the only new member on the tribe. Chapera celebrated when they reached their new campsite. The new Chapera tribe lost the Immunity Challenge and while leaving the challenge Lex struck a deal with Mogo Mogo member, Rob Mariano to save Amber. The tribe went along with Lex's idea and targeted Jerri. Kathy went along with Lex's plan to vote out Jerri and Jerri was voted out at Tribal Council.

The tribes merged on Day 26 into the Chaboga Mogo tribe. Kathy assumed she was in a good place in the game, having a previous bond with the members of Mogo Mogo and having made a deal with Rob. Kathy won the first individual Immunity Challenge. When Rob revealed he planned on betraying Lex, Kathy considered giving Immunity to Lex to save him but possibly eliminate herself, but Lex told her no and to keep her immunity. At Tribal Council, Kathy decided to keep her immunity so Lex was voted out. Kathy then became a target due to her being one of the last remaining original Mogo Mogo members. At the Reward Challenge, Kathy was teamed up with Jenna Lewis, Rupert Boneham, and Tom Buchanan. Kathy's team lost, which also prevented her from competing for immunity. Rob gave up his reward so everyone else can have theirs. Kathy wondered if the move was strategic or from pure kindness. Kathy warned the lower members of the Chapera Alliance to come with Mogo Mogo or be picked off. Kathy's lobbying failed and she was voted out 6-2.

At the Final Tribal Council, Kathy was the second person to speak. Kathy reminded Rob on how after Marquesas he was worried about how he was going to be perceived. Her question to him was what will people think of him after he used and killed friendships to get to a place, where is that place and is he concerned about this. Rob admitted to abusing friendships and was worried about it, but he didn't know where that place was. Rob also claimed he was not a malicious person and would not intentionally hurt anybody. Kathy then asked Amber if she was playing Rob and if she won, and would she continue her relationship with him in real life. Amber admitted that she was initially flirting with Rob as strategy. However, as the game continued, she did develop genuine feelings for him and would hope to continue their relationship. Kathy then gave an emotional heartfelt speech about how Rob crushed her severely and that the finalists could have taken a different way that would not have left the jury as hurt as they are now. Kathy voted for Rob to win, reasoning that their friendship was still there, even if it had been fractured. However, he lost to Amber by one vote 4-3.

Episode Tribe
Affiliation
Challenge Challenge Type Sit-Out? Result
1 Mogo Mogo Quest for Fire Immunity No 2nd
2 Stairway to the Stars Reward No Lost
Float Your Boat Immunity No 2nd
3 Better Homes and Island Living Reward Yes 2nd
4 Match Maker Reward No Lost
Blind Cube Crisis Immunity No 2nd
5 Shipwrecked Raft Rescue Reward No 1st
Pilfering Pirates Immunity No Lost
6 Stomp-ede Reward No Won
7 Floating Puzzle Reward/Immunity No Invited1
8 Log Jam Reward No Lost
Choose Your Weapon Immunity No Lost
Switched Tribes, Day 23
10 Chapera Survivor History Immunity No Lost
11 Rock Bottom Reward2 Lost
Tribes Merged, Day 26
11 Chaboga
Mogo
Waiting to Exhale Immunity Won
12 Big Bad-O Course Reward/Immunity3 Lost
Voted Out, Day 28
Notes:
^1 As part of Chapera's win at the Immunity Challenge, they kidnapped one member of Mogo Mogo who would share their reward and live with them overnight, thus allowing them to abstain from Tribal Council. Chapera kidnapped Kathy.
^2 The castaways competed as individuals.
^3 The castaways first competed as two teams for reward. Only the members of the winning team would have the right to compete for individual immunity.

Episode Kathy's
Votes
Voted Against
Kathy
1 Mogo Mogo Tribe Immune
2 Mogo Mogo Tribe Immune
3 No Tribal Council
4 Mogo Mogo Tribe Immune
5 Richard -
6 No Tribal Council
7 Kidnapped by Chapera1
8 Ethan -
10 Jerri -
11 Amber Individual Immunity
12 Amber Alicia, Amber, Jenna L.,
Rob M., Rupert, Tom
Voted Out, Day 28
Voted for
Sole Survivor
Rob M.

^1 In "Sorry... I Blew It", Kathy was kidnapped by the Chapera tribe, granting her immunity from Mogo Mogo's Tribal Council.

Post-Survivor[]

  • Kathy attended the Survivor: Thailand Reunion Show.
  • In 2003, Kathy was one of several castaways who appeared on MTV's Men vs. Women: Rumble in the Jungle, a preview show for Survivor: The Amazon and offered her commentary in the debate of which gender was stronger.[4][5]
  • On January 9, 2010, Kathy attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party.

Trivia[]

  • Kathy is the first, and so far only, Survivor contestant to reside in Vermont during filming
  • Kathy's luxury item in Marquesas was a painting kit.
  • Kathy is the oldest woman on the original Rotu tribe.
  • Kathy is the only member of Rotu to never sit out of a challenge.
  • Kathy is the first woman to finish in third place.
  • Kathy is the oldest castaway on the original Mogo Mogo tribe and the oldest woman to compete on All-Stars.
  • Kathy is the first castaway to win individual immunity in two separate seasons. She is also the first castaway to win the first individual Immunity Challenge in two separate seasons.
  • In All-Stars, Kathy became the first person to be voted out on Day 28.
  • Both times Kathy played, she voted for the eventual runner-up to win the season.

References[]

Survivor: Marquesas Castaways
 Gabriel
Rotu
S4 gabriel t
 Gina
Maraamu
S4 gina t
 Hunter
Maraamu
S4 hunter t
 John
Rotu
S4 john t
 Kathy
Rotu
S4 kathy t
 Neleh
Rotu
S4 neleh t
 Paschal
Rotu
S4 paschal t
 Patricia
Maraamu
S4 patricia t
 Peter
Maraamu
S4 peter t
 Rob
Maraamu
S4 rob t
 Robert
Rotu
S4 robert t
 Sarah
Maraamu
S4 sarah t
 Sean
Maraamu
S4 sean t
 Tammy
Rotu
S4 tammy t
 Vecepia
Maraamu
S4 vecepia t
 Zoe
Rotu
S4 zoe t
Survivor: All-Stars Castaways
 Alicia
Chapera
S8 alicia t
 Amber
Chapera
S8 amber t
 Colby
Mogo Mogo
S8 colby t
 Ethan
Saboga
S8 ethan t
 Jenna L.
Saboga
S8 jennal t
 Jenna M.
Mogo Mogo
S8 jennam t
 Jerri
Saboga
S8 jerri t
 Kathy
Mogo Mogo
S8 kathy t
 Lex
Mogo Mogo
S8 lex t
 Richard
Mogo Mogo
S8 richard t
 Rob C.
Chapera
S8 robc t
 Rob M.
Chapera
S8 robm t
 Rudy
Saboga
S8 rudy t
 Rupert
Saboga
S8 rupert t
 Shii Ann
Mogo Mogo
S8 shiiann t
 Susan
Chapera
S8 susan t
 Tina
Saboga
S8 tina t
 Tom
Chapera
S8 tom t
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