Delta Roman Leah Burke is an American actress, producer, and songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her CBS Sitcom, ‘Designing Women.’
She was born in 1956 in Florida. While she was a baby, she was adopted by Frederick Burke, who became her father and treated her like his own daughter. She never met her biological parents.
1n 1974, when she turned 18, she participated in the ‘Miss Florida’ pageant and won. She was the youngest ever to win the title.
This ‘Miss Florida’ title opened up many career opportunities for her, and in the mid-1970s, she started her acting career.
Burke appeared in several TV series, and in 1986, she was offered to star in the sitcom Designing Women as one of the lead characters.
The series was divided into parts, and Delta Burke became more popular with each successive season. Her show became the one of the top-rated shows in the US.
In the series, she played the character of ‘Susanne Sugarbaker’ ; the most loved character on the show.
She also got nominated for the Emmys, not once but twice.
But despite being immensely popular among fans, Burke faced several issues with the show’s management. In one of her public appearances, she told The Orlando Sentinel.
”Designing Women is a success story, but it is not a good workplace, not a good environment … It’s so strange, being part of something that’s so wonderful and so awful at the same time,”
After several harsh encounters with the production team, she finally left the show in 1991, while the last two seasons were still left to be filmed.
In her interview, the actress also shared that the directors had issues with her weight.
“I didn’t understand,” she said. “The producer Harry Thomason forced me to go on “extreme diets,” and perhaps these few extra pounds of mine are the reason behind my exit from the show.”
According to delta, she couldn’t reduce weight because she had type 2 diabetes.
”I was telling myself that I was a bad person because I couldn’t lose the weight fast enough.”
She said several newspapers often criticized her for her extra weight, which affected her mental health.
”My doctor told me I would end up on insulin if I didn’t get my blood glucose under control. That scared me enough to take action,” she said.
”I began a stringent eating program and tested my blood more often. That’s when I got better control of my blood glucose. I also lost 20 pounds, which helped a lot.”
Her professional journey didn’t go well, but her personal life relieved her, as she had a supportive husband. Burke was married to actor Gerald McRaney.
They met in the 1980s, and it was ‘love at first sight’ for McRaney.
”Mac loves me no matter what. He loved me when I got as big as a house. He loved me when I was a blonde”, the actress told The Daily Mail.
“He reminds me what I should be doing or shouldn’t be eating,” she told People. “He likes to give me my insulin shots and says it makes him feel like he’s taking care of me.”
The actress didn’t have any children of her own, but Gerald had three kids from his previous marriages.
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