Heather Leigh Whitestone McCallum (born February 24, 1973) is a former

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

and conservative activist who was the first deaf Miss America title holder, having lost most of her hearing at 18 months.

Early life

Whitestone was born in

Dothan, Alabama Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner ...

, to Bill Whitestone and Daphne Gray. When she was 18 months old, she lost her hearing due to a serious ear infection. In fourth grade, Heather learned about the story of a young woman from Alabama who would forever change her life, Helen Keller. Keller became her role model. Whitestone was unable to keep up with her classwork and began to fall behind her peers. She asked her family to send her to a special school that would enable her to catch up with other students in her class. While at the

Central Institute for the Deaf Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is a school for the deaf that teaches students using listening and spoken language, also known as the auditory-oral approach. The school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. CID is affiliated with Washington Univ ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, she learned two grade levels per year. After three years, she caught up with her peers and returned to Alabama to graduate from public high school with a 3.6-grade point average (GPA). She moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

at age sixteen, following her parents' divorce. She attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts for a year and graduated from Berry High School (now Hoover High School) in 1991. Her passion was

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, and she had spent most of her time developing her ballet skills, especially after hearing loss. She then went on to study at

Jacksonville State University Jacksonville State University (JSU) is a public university in Jacksonville, Alabama. Founded in 1883, Jacksonville State offers programs of study in six academic schools leading to bachelor's, master's, education specialist, and doctorate degr ...

Pageant record

Whitestone first participated in the Shelby County

Junior Miss ''Junior Miss'' is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in ''The New Yorker''. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in ''The New Yorker'', some under her pseudonym of ...

program. While not actually a beauty pageant, the experience gave her the confidence to begin entering pageants. Her first year in the Miss America system, she won the Miss

title, and went on to be

Miss Alabama The Miss Alabama competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Alabama in the annual Miss America Competition. Alabama has won three Miss America titles: Deidre Downs in 2005, Heather Whitestone (the first deaf w ...

. She stood next to

Miss Virginia The Miss Virginia competition is a scholarship pageant for women, with the titleholder representing Virginia in the Miss America pageant. The competition was founded in 1953 as a scholarship contest for young women, although women had represente ...

(Cullen Johnson) in the finals of the Miss America 1995 pageant. When the first runner-up was announced, she could not hear the host

Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest working ma ...

but could read his lips. Surprised, she looked to her fellow contestant for confirmation that she had won. As Miss America, she showcased her S.T.A.R.S. program around the country. S.T.A.R.S. stands for "Success Through Action and Realization of your dreams." It has five points: positive attitude, belief in a dream, the willingness to work hard, facing obstacles, and building a strong support team. Whitestone also served as an executive member on the President's Committee on Employment of People Disabilities. She has written four books.

After Miss America

Since her Miss America win, Whitestone has completed her studies at

and continued to promote awareness of Deaf issues. She has also spoken out in detail about her close relationship with God, one that she has had ever since she rediscovered church as a teenager. She wrote about her life experiences in her third book, ''Let God Surprise You: Trust God with Your Dreams''. A volunteer for

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

causes, she spoke at the party's National Conventions of 1996 and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, for GOP presidential nominees Bob Dole and

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. In 2002, Whitestone elected to have a

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...

operation in order to hear to an extent in her right ear, the hearing of which she had lost at 18 months. It was implanted by Dr.

John Niparko John K. Niparko (1955 – April 25, 2016) was an American surgeon, scientist and otolaryngologist who specialized in cochlear implants. Niparko edited and wrote several chapters of ''Cochlear Implants: Principles & Practices''. Early life Nipa ...

on August 6 at Johns Hopkins Medical Center and activated on September 19. She said the primary motivation for electing the surgery was an incident when she did not hear her son's cries for help. She said that she had not regretted her decision, thanking her family for supporting her. She is a motivational speaker and lives in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

with her husband John McCallum, whom she met when he served as a Congressional aide to Speaker Newt Gingrich. They have four children: John, James, Wilson, and William. Whitestone was appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the US Senate to the

National Council on Disability The National Council on Disability (NCD) is an advisory agency on disability policy in the United States for all levels of government and for private sector entities NCD is an independent agency of the United States government headquartered in ...

, but she resigned in 2010. She was also a board member of the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education from 1995 to 2002. Whitestone was appointed to the Advisory Council for the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, in 2002. She has appeared on CNN, ABC's '' Good Morning America'' and '' The View''. She has also been in print articles for ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'' and ''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...

''. In 2003, she filmed two public service announcements to bring awareness about "Dogs for the Deaf", which is a hearing-dog organization. Whitestone became a spokesperson for the Starkey Hearing Aid Foundation and for Cochlear America. She has written four books: ''Listening with My Heart'', ''Believing in the Promise'', ''Let God Surprise You'', and ''Heavenly Crowns''. She has also spearheaded the nation's largest multimedia public service campaign to identify early hearing loss, which was created by the Miss America Organization and the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.Miss America Organization. "Miss America 1995: Heather Whitestone." Miss America Organization. Miss America Organization, 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2012.

Bibliography

* ''Listening with My Heart'' (1997) * ''Believing the Promise'' (1999) * ''Let God Surprise You'' (2003) * ''Heavenly Crowns'' (2004)

References

External links