Friday, May 26, 2000
Miss America helps veteran, family go home
'Forgotten Heroes' program delivers
By Tom O'Neill
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Heather French shows Donald Whitehead and his family their new home.
(Tony Jones photo)
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BATAVIA — As the daughter of one, she speaks with eloquence about war veterans, an issue that has resonated throughout her reign as Miss America. But in Clermont County on Thursday, Heather French's voice wavered with emotion as she made the first in a nationwide series of presentations of new homes to formerly homeless veterans.
Donald Whitehead, formerly of Over-the-Rhine, hugged his wife and two young sons, took the keys, and having gained so much, found himself at a loss for words.
“I am so overwhelmed,” the 37-year-old Navy veteran told a gathering of more than 100 people on Bay Meadows Drive in Batavia. “I can't think of what to say except thank you.”
His life had been a landscape of lost potential. Voted “Most Likely to Succeed” at Hughes High School in 1981, alcohol and other drug addiction forced his conditional release from the Navy three years later. By 1990, he was sleeping on fire escapes, under bridges and in the bathroom at Eden Park, a life he called “invisible.”
He is now a national recruiter for Goodwill and also works for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.
The “Remember Our Forgotten Heroes” program is co-sponsored by Cincinnati-based Senco Products, the Manufactured Housing Institute and Champion Enterprises. The goal is to provide affordable housing to vets who have completed job training and, in Mr. Whitehead's case, successful drug treatment.
Later, after a parade of photo opportunities and autographs, Ms. French sat for an interview with the Enquirer in the back seat of her limousine. Asked what she wanted her legacy to say, the Maysville, Ky., native and 1997 University of Cincinnati graduate paused.
“That she wasn't just Miss America,” said Ms. French, whose father, Ronnie, is a disabled Vietnam War vet. “That she was every veteran's daughter.”
She has championed veterans' causes since earning the crown eight months ago, and first met Mr. Whitehead when he served as her escort at a veterans' stand-down ceremony in Cincinnati.
She saw in him a potentially wonderful candidate for the “Forgotten Heroes” housing program. Through it, homes are donated to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, which makes them available to vets based on their ability to pay.
Mr. Whitehead grew up on Hearne Street in Avondale, and as a smart but troubled youth, attended three Cincinnati high schools. The self-described son of an alcoholic father, he began using alcohol when he was 15. That eventually led to “whatever I could get,” including cocaine.
Eventually, he landed at the Drop-Inn Center, where he met his future wife, Linda, who also had been homeless. They have two sons, Ryan and Cortez. They spent Thursday morning with Ms. French, away from the media's spotlight.
“I think she's an incredibly genuine person,” he said. “What she said about making a difference, she's delivered.”
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