ITHACA, N.Y. -- On the phone in her office on the fifth floor of Bradfield Hall on the Cornell University campus, wearing a print blouse patterned with leaves, plant geneticist Elizabeth Earle finished up her third press interview of the day. "That was the Associated Press," she said, hanging up the phone. 

But this was not her first 15 minutes of fame. 

Fifty-one years ago, as a 16-year-old Shaker Heights (Ohio) High School junior, Earle won an essay contest and read her words on the widely heard CBS radio show, "This I Believe." Hosted by famed journalist Edward R. Murrow, the daily five-minute program featured both luminaries -- Harry Truman, Leonard Bernstein and Jackie Robinson -- and ordinary people -- from teachers to cab drivers -- reading essays about the "core beliefs that guide their daily lives." 

A resurrected version of the show now airs weekly on National Public Radio's (NPR) "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." On June 19, Earle, a Cornell professor of plant breeding and genetics, read her new essay that recalls the original. 

When Earle won the contest in 1954, she and her mother were flown to New York City, where they saw "The King and I" on Broadway, dined at the Waldorf Astoria and visited jazz clubs. Earle also met an "elegant, sophisticated and well-dressed" Murrow and recorded her essay, which was heard across the country on the CBS radio network. The essay was also published in a second volume of essays from the show. The first volume sold 300,000 copies in its first year in print in 1952 -- only the Bible outsold it that year. 

"My essay was in there with all sorts of famous people -- presidents and states-people and celebrities," Earle said. "It was one of those 15 minutes of fame things; it faded away." 

Earle's original essay followed the show's guidelines asking for personal views on individual beliefs, as opposed to dogma. "My main point was I did not have a fixed religious philosophy, but I had general guidelines I tried to follow on being a good person," she said. Her essay explained that she was "freelancing" in religion and that she considered it her duty to expose herself to all forms of religion. A member of a Unitarian youth group with other "serious teenagers" like herself, she wrote, "If I were to discover there is no afterlife, my motive for moral living would not be destroyed. I have enough of the philosopher in me to love righteousness for its own sake." 

She received a great deal of mail following the essay's broadcast. "Some people liked what I said, and other people wrote things like, 'I'm really distressed that a nice girl like you is going to hell.' I'll be interested to see what kind of response I receive when the new essay gets out." 

In August 2003, Dan Gediman, an NPR producer interested in doing a radio documentary about the 1950s show, tracked Earle down, knowing only her maiden name -- Deutsch -- and hometown. 

"I am writing you on a long shot that you are the same woman who nearly 50 years ago wrote an essay for 'This I Believe,' the radio series," Gediman wrote in his e-mail. "If I am correct, you would be one of the few people still living who contributed to that series." 

Gediman asked Earle if she would write a new essay. She agreed, but not right away. 

"I was initially hesitant, much more so than before when I just wrote the essay and mailed it in; this time I felt exposed to the whole Cornell community," Earle said. 

In considering her new essay, Earle said she wondered whether she still agreed with her earlier beliefs, or whether she had changed. "I concluded I am pretty much the same person," she said. "But I have new input after a lifetime. I realize that while I have personally had a good life, for others, life is often unfair." 

She wrote that after Sept. 11, 2001, she has had a greater need for reflection with others and for a spiritual connection, and has, therefore, returned to the Unitarian Church. "In some sense, I've come full circle," she said. 

At Cornell, Earle teaches and researches plant tissue culture and plant biotechnology. She and her colleague Jun Cao, a senior research associate in plant breeding and genetics, have developed genetically engineered broccoli plants that kill insects but are safe to eat, although are used only for research. 

"The goal of the work is to produce plants that would be helpful in developing regulations in the use of genetically modified plants," she said. 

Earle was chair of the Department of Plant Breeding from 1993 to 2001. She is also a faculty-elected member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. In fact, following Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman's resignation, the board held a meeting in New York City on June 16. Before that meeting, Earle went to the NPR studios and recorded her new essay.