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Biography
Heather Whitestone McCallum became the first Miss America with a disability on September 17th, 1994. In that moment, she has proved to the world that no obstacle is too big and that with hard work, determination and God’s help, we can accomplish whatever we set out to do. Heather’s accomplishments are particularly astounding considering the fact that she has been profoundly deaf since she was eighteen months old. Heather was rushed to the hospital with a dangerously high fever, the cause of which was later diagnosed as the Haemophilus influenzae virus. Her doctors also suspect that she simultaneously contracted meningitis as she had a severe blood infection. According to the doctors, she was only hours from death when they administered two powerful antibiotics that reduced her fever and saved her life. A few months later on Christmas Day, her mother accidentally dropped a pile of pans on the kitchen floor and Heather, who was playing nearby, did not even flinch. At the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, Heather tested as "profoundly deaf" with no hearing in either ear. Her condition was concluded to be the result of her near fatal illness. Ironically, Heather’s deafness was a blessing. Throughout her childhood, Heather barely heard the voices of discouragement that hearing people often hear. She did not hear the doctor telling her family that she wouldn’t develop past a third grade level. She never heard the vulgar language that permeates our culture. She never heard the voices of those who said she could never dance ballet, let alone speak. Despite the odds, Heather and her family forged ahead. Determined to live a normal life, Heather mainstreamed in a hearing public school and became the only deaf student in the whole school. In fourth grade, Heather learned about the story of a young woman from Alabama who would forever change her life -- Helen Keller. Helen became Heather's role model. Unfortuantely, Heather was unable to keep up with her classwork and began to fall behind her peers. At eleven years old, Heather 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 in St. Louis, Missouri, Heather learned two grade levels per year. After three difficult but exciting years, Heather caught up with her peers and returned to Alabama to graduate from public high school with 3.6 GPA. It was also during her high school years that Heather accepted Jesus as her Savior. Even though she grew up in a church, she never asked Jesus to forgive her sins personally until she was fifteen years old. Heather is proud to say that Jesus became her biggest role model as a young adult and that his influence in her life is the key to all of her success. Heather enrolled in college and soon began to compete in local pageants. For some girls competing in pageants was strictly for fun, but Heather was on an entirely different mission. Due to financial hardship at home, Heather began competing in order to earn the valuable scholarship money that was available to the winners. She saw the pageants as a way to help to pay for school. However, before long, Heather decided that she wanted to seriously compete for Miss Alabama. Twice, Heather made it to the Miss Alabama pageant only to come in second place both times. She was ready to quit. However, encouraged by her family and friends, Heather decided to give it one more shot. It had taken Heather six years to correctly pronounce her last name, so she knew winning Miss Alabama was possible. 
Over the next year, Heather worked tirelessly to improve all aspects of her program. Her hard work and determination paid off. On her third attempt, Heather won the Miss Alabama pageant and a few short months later, she was in Atlantic City, New Jersey competing for the title of Miss America 1995. Stunning the audience and the world with a ballet routine performed to Christian vocalist Sandi Patti’s Via Dolorosa, Heather captured the hearts of all those who watched from around the world. As the competition narrowed to two contestants, Heather calmly awaited the outcome. Often, people would ask Heather what it felt like to hear the Regis Philbin say, "and Miss America 1995 is... Heather Whitestone!" Heather laughs and says, "I never heard it." In that one instant Heather’s life was changed forever. Heather became the first woman with a disability crowned Miss America in the pageant’s 75-year history. Heather has always believed that the biggest handicap is negative thinking and that people handicap themselves by concentrating only on the negative instead of the positive. During her year as Miss America, Heather introduced the world to her five-point STARS program with the help of her family members and close friends. Her STARS program was aimed at showing the others how to achieve "Success Through Action and Realization of your dreamS." STARS had five points and they were a positive attitude, a goal, a willingness to work hard, a realistic look at your problem and a support team. During her reign as Miss America, Heather traveled to every corner of the country speaking to corporations, non-profit organizations, churches, and government, including the FBI and CIA. She traveled an average of 20,000 miles a month and spoke in a different city every other day. She lived with three suitcases and only went home three times that year. Heather’s chance to influence the public did not go unnoticed by those she has worked with. Heather made an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, DC where she was invited to kick off the nation's largest multimedia public service campaign to identify early hearing loss, which was created by the Miss America Organization and the Alexandra Graham Bell Association for the Deaf. Heather also served as an executive board member on the President’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities during her year of service as Miss America. Heather’s accomplishments were recognized on both the House and Senate floors, including tribute by the Honorable Robert Dole. Further, Heather has spoken to numerous state assemblies including Alabama, North Carolina and New Jersey. In addition to these honors, Heather was also honored with the Spirit of Achievement Award by Paula Zahn and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The crowning honor of her time a Miss America came late in 1995 when Heather was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement. Heather received the Academy’s Gold Plate Award for outstanding community service. Other inductees in Heather’s class included Mike Wallace, Rosa Parks, Reverend Robert Schuller, and Robin Williams. Heather is honored to be included with the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners, Generals and former Presidents that the Academy of Achievement has honored in previous years.
Heather’s accomplishments were also recognized by many media organizations, including NBC Today Show, ABC, CBS and CNN. She was pleased to be named Peter Jennings Person of the Week and to be interviewed by Barbara Walters on the evening news program 20/20 as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Her story has also been chronicled by many magazines including Time and People. During her reign, Heather was also fortunate to work with and learn from the many corporate sponsors who supported the Miss America Organization including Fruit of the Loom, The Walt Disney Company, Chevrolet, Waterford Crystal and many others. This corporate sponsorship work prepared her well for a career that she would never have imagined back in 1995. Since childhood, Heather’s life has resolved around her ballet and Heather considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity to dance before 40 million viewers at the Miss America Pageant. Heather was also featured dancer at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral Church in California where she performed for seven days in the Glory of Christmas pageant. Heather made her professional ballet debut with the Alabama Ballet Company in the spring of 1996. Since relinquishing her title in September of 1995, Heather has had the opportunity to work with several corporate, non-profit and civic organizations. For more than eight years, Heather has toured both nationally and internationally motivating corporate, civic and religious organizations. Currently, Heather’s speaking engagements are handled exclusively by the Washington Speakers Bureau. In addition to her speaking engagements, Heather has been proud to represent AmSouth Bank, the Alabama Tourism Board, Express Oil Change, and CitiBank of Asia. For many years Heather has been a spokesperson for the worldwide leader in hearing instruments, Starkey Laboratories, and its subsidiary, Audibel. She recently joined the Cochlear Americas as a spokesperson subsequent to her cochlear implant surgery on August 7th, 2002. One little known fact is that Heather was the star of a music video for the hit country song "How Do You Fall In Love," which was performed by the Alabama. Heather was proud to be a part of helping that song rise to #2 on the country music charts. In 2002, Heather appeared on CNN with Connie Chung, she made three appearances on ABC’s Good Morning America program and a guest appearance on the ABC’s daytime program The View. Heather was also featured in print articles in USA Today and People magazine in the fall of 2002.
Heather has authored two books entitled, "Listening With My Heart" (Doubleday, 1997) and "Believing The Promise" (Doubleday, 1999). In "Listening With My Heart," she shares her life-changing wisdom with others, demonstrating that with strength and faith, anything is possible. She is presently working on two new books with Zondervan publishing. One of those books, entitled "Let God Surprise You," will be available in May 2003. In it, she encourages people form all walks of life to let God surprise them with the unexpected, even the impossible. She demonstrates that God can surprise us with provision, with new motivations, even with children. Heather is busy in the political and non-profit arenas as well. She was a board member of the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education from 1995 until 2002. In 2002, she was appointed by President Bush and Secretary Thompson to the Advisory Council for the National Institute of Health on Deafness and Other Communication Disorder. This board’s responsibility is to oversee the disbursement of over $25 million in grants for research. In the past two presidential election years, she has been honored to speak at Republican National Convention for Majority Leader Bob Dole in 1996 and Governor George W. Bush in 2000. In 2003, Heather filmed two Public Service Announcements for worthwhile organizations. She helped to bring awareness to the public about Dogs for the Deaf, the oldest and largest Hearing Dog organization in the world and she also helped the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety initiative to demonstrate how families can protect themselves from food borne illness. The biggest news in Heather’s life is that she was married to John A. McCallum on June 8, 1996 and became a mother of two boys named John and James. Heather and John met during her year as Miss America when she paid a visit to the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich at the Capitol Building. Little did she know that her future husband was working as a Legislative Aide to Speaker Gingrich. John is presently the Executive Director of the Technology Association of Georgia Foundation and is spearheading the development of Charter Schools in Georgia. John and Heather have lived in Atlanta, Georgia for the past seven years. Heather’s children are her priority. Even though Heather continues to travel, she is pleased to be able to spend most of her time at home. While at home in Atlanta she has the opportunity to work on learning the new sounds that she is hearing with her cochlear implant. |
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