Heather Whitestone: The First Miss

Heather Whitestone:

The first Miss America with a disability proclaimed herself a Miss America for all America, not just the deaf

When Heather Whitestone became Miss America, it might be assumed that all of her fellow deaf Americans felt a swell of pride in their collective hearts. But Whitestone's ascent to the title proved to be one of the most controversial selections of a Miss America since the debate over Vanessa Williams' decision to pose for nude photographs before assuming the crown. Initially, the decision that was so controversial in Whitestone's life was not a decision Heather had made. Rather, it was a decision her parents had made for her, namely how to educate this young, deaf girl. Heather Whitehead's support for orally-based deaf education and cochlear implants as a result of upbringing has made her a controversial figure in the deaf community, even today.

Heather Whitestone was born in the small town of Dothan, Alabama in April of 1973. Heather was born with the ability to hear, but when 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" ("Heather Whitestone," Perfect People, 2010). Her parents thought all was well until a few months later when Heather's mother Daphne dropped some pans on the kitchen floor, and Heather did not register the noise in her reaction. "At the Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, Heather was found to be profoundly deaf in both ears, most likely the result of her illness" or the strong antibiotics she was given to treat them that had weakened the nerves in her ears ("Heather Whitestone," Perfect People, 2010). Today, Heather has a recorded 120-decibel hearing loss in her right ear and a 90-decibel hearing loss in her left ear when wearing her hearing aid. Without her cochlear implant "I hear nothing from either ear," she states ("FAQ," Heather Whitestone Webpage, 2010).

Heather's parents had never had any experience with deaf culture, and limited experience with deaf people. This was also true of many of the doctors they spoke to initially about their daughter's condition, one of whom said that it was unlikely that Heather would develop beyond a third grade level, academically ("Heather Whitestone," Perfect People, 2010). However, Heather's parents decided to enroll her in a program with an approach to deaf education that emphasized teaching deaf children to use their residual hearing to learn to speak. Heather attended mainstream classes at the local elementary school. "Whitestone's hearing was amplified with a hearing aid, and she was taught to read lips and to speak. The program helped Whitestone to live in the hearing world" ("Heather Whitestone," Alabama, 2003). Heather's mother also obtained a private speech therapist for her daughter. "It took me six years to say my last name correctly" ("FAQ," Heather Whitestone Webpage, 2010).

Many deaf education programs, including Gallaudet University, the premier school of higher education for the deaf in America, oppose this oral approach to deaf education (also known as acoupedics) and call it a failure. According to Margret a. Winzer and Kas Mazurek, the effects of oral-only preschool programs appeared "to be negligible," in terms of aiding deaf children, and in fact "children who signed at home had superior English and academic skills to matched groups of children who did not sign at home, and those who signed at home showed no negative effects on speech or speech reading" (Winzer & Mazurek 2010). Also, orally-based programs are usually recommended only for children with a high level of residual hearing, unlike Heather. (Although it is important to point out when reviewing the current literature that children who grow up in manual 'signing' households might have more deaf-aware parents, and that not all hearing parents with a deaf child who desire to communicate with their child have the ability to quickly become fluent signers.)

One incident from Whitestone's life does support the idea that purely orally-based programs are ineffective for the profoundly deaf. "By the age of eleven Whitestone was falling behind in school. She convinced her parents to send her to the Central Institute of the Deaf in St. Louis [Missouri]. There, Whitestone learned sign language, and met deaf children from all over the world" ("Heather Whitestone," Alabama, 2003). This was Heather's first introduction to a deaf educational institution. For the first time Heather was not the only deaf child in one of her classes. However, even here, an oral rather than a manual approach was emphasized. Heather did not learn sign language at all until the 11th grade ("FAQ," Heather Whitestone Webpage, 2010).

Despite benefiting from befriending other deaf children and her exposure to deaf culture, Whitestone still longed to return to the Dothan public school system, where she attended the local public high school. After her parent's divorce, she moved with her mother to Birmingham and eventually graduated from an area high school with a 3.6 average. Heather graduated without the aid of a sign language interpreter in class. Outside of school, Whitestone's interests were viewed as unconventional for a deaf girl: she loved ballet and dancing, and studied first at the Dothan School of Dance and then at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Whitestone chose to attend college at a hearing university, Jacksonville State University, which enabled her with some outside support to attend classes with her hearing peers.

When Whitestone took the crown of Miss America in 1994, her talent was her dance to the ballet Via Dolorosa. Heather has performed professionally as a dancer, including as a featured dancer at Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral Church in California in a Christmas pageant. Heather made her professional ballet debut with the Alabama Ballet Company in the spring of 1996, after relinquishing her Miss America crown. Heather also starred in a music video for the hit country song "How Do You Fall in Love," which rose to #2 on the country music charts ("Heather Whitestone," Perfect People, 2010).

While many deaf people have shown a love for dance and music, it is worth noting that Heather's interest in music took her into the hearing world by choice: most of the individuals to whom she was exposed as part of the world of dance were hearing. Heather has always discussed her various pastimes, such as ballet, music, and orienteering, as a way of challenging herself and proving that her disability does not limit her. "As I became a teenager, I began to participate in the sport of orienteering - a popular competition that involves being dropped off in unfamiliar woods with nothing but a map and a compass. Orienteering enabled me to increase my self-esteem, and I found that I also loved the thrill of competition. Competing on an equal footing with hearing people assured me that my mind and heart were no different from theirs, and when I won the state orienteering championship, my self-confidence increased by leaps and bounds" ("FAQ," Heather Whitestone Webpage, 2010).