Mary Ann Winkowski
Mary Ann Winkowski is an American television personality whose paranormal experiences are the basis for CBS's Ghost Whisperer, on which she was also a paid producer. At the time the show began, she was often paid to attend funerals to help relatives have one last conversation with a loved one. Since the show's release, Winkowski has published five books: two non-fiction books, When Ghosts Speak and As Alive, So Dead ; two novels with Maureen Foley, The Book of Illumination and The Ice Cradle ; and a cook book, Beyond Delicious, with David Powers.
Winkowski was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1948. She says she began seeing ghosts as a toddler, around the time her younger sister was born.
As of 2011, she lived in North Royalton, Ohio. She is a breast cancer survivor and has two children.