Kate Linder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 10, 2008, the same week she marked her 26th year on "The Young and the Restless" and her 30th as a United flight attendant. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Y&R co-creator Lee Phillip Bell and castmate Jeanne Cooper spoke at her well-attended ceremony.

If you're Kate Linder, you don't quit your job as a United Airlines flight attendant because you're cast for a one-day, one-line role on "The Young and the Restless." Linder has done both jobs simultaneously for the almost 27 years she's been on the #1 rated soap opera (that's #1 every single week for 20 years!) in daytime television -- with the resulting confusion among passengers creating hilarious anecdotes! The passenger/fan response has been overwhelming and incredulous. Linder is also active with the USO, visiting troops in the US, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Korea and Guantanamo Bay. In late '05, Linder was elected Governor of the Daytime Programming Peer Group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (yup, the folks who put on the Emmys), she was reelected in '07.

Linder, as Esther Valentine (so named because Linder was married on Valentine's Day), confidante/housekeeper to the soap's wealthy and powerful matron, Katherine Chancellor (Cooper), has often been called upon to add a touch of humor to the show. Her character has been perennially unlucky in love and when she briefly wed a man at last, he turned out to be a con artist who murdered her boss' husband. Esther just married another con – this one helped kidnap her presumed-dead boss. Esther's daughter returned last year under an assumed name since she was embarrassed that her mom was a maid. After a brief stint as a woman of leisure, thanks to her boss' will, Esther will soon be in peril due to her poor choices in men.

For Linder, working in the first-class section is more than a plane ride, it's an ego trip. "My passengers are frequently movie stars and political figures -- and I get as many autograph requests from the other passengers as they do." But as anyone who has ever met Kate can attest, her feet are still planted firmly on the ground.

Kate is an eternal optimist and tireless worker for many charities and was named celebrity spokesperson for The ALS Association in early 2005. Her brother-in-law was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in December, 2004 and Kate went to Washington, DC to lobby for more funds to fight this disease which has no cure for the past four years. In 2006, Linder won the organization's All-Star Award for her passionate service to the cause and won their Packman Award in 2007. Kate travels around the country to participate in and encourage other volunteers at the ALS Association's fundraisers, Walk to D'Feet ALS, and in their fundraising dinners for local chapters. She's also active with many AIDS charities.

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