THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE with Jeanette Deatherage

Howard Brown: 00:00:03

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

Show. Oh my goodness. I have a story and a guess for you today.

Howard Brown: 00:00:11

I'm very excited to welcome Jeannette Deatherage Jeanette,

Howard Brown: 00:00:15

how are you? Welcome.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:16

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Howard Brown: 00:00:18

Oh my god, I love your background. For those that

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are watching you'll, you'll see that she's got Mary Kay products

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and pink background and looks awesome. Good, good contrast,

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and my yellow background and the sun shining on us as well. So I

Howard Brown: 00:00:34

know you're in Florida. But tell tell us about yourself a little

Howard Brown: 00:00:37

bit, you know, short bio.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:39

Here, I grew up on a dairy farm. And if

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:42

you know anything about cows, you cannot go on vacation. They

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:44

have to be milked more than a night. And I realised when I was

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:47

in school, that I had to go somewhere else. So I decided to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:50

go to the recruiter Air Force. And I joined the Air Force right

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:00:54

out of high school. And then I met my husband, and it's just

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:00

been a really exciting roller coaster, to be honest.

Howard Brown: 00:01:04

That's, it's amazing. So we're gonna dig deep

Howard Brown: 00:01:07

into that a little bit. But first, how do you choose to

Howard Brown: 00:01:11

shine brightly every day?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:13

You know, every day that we wake up, it's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:15

a great day. And I start with some meditation, and I'm very

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:18

spiritual. So that kind of gets my day started. And I realised

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:23

that it's just wonderful to be around

Howard Brown: 00:01:26

it. And that's a beautiful way to start the day

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with meditation and what you're grateful and thankful for I do

Howard Brown: 00:01:32

the same. So awesome. I love that. Well, let's get into your

Howard Brown: 00:01:36

story. Take me back to a four year old Jeanette. And what

Howard Brown: 00:01:39

happened?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:41

Well, I can still see the airport, my

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:43

husband, my brother came home from Vietnam and his dress

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:47

uniform, and a little bit of aeroplane that he called a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:49

puddle jumper. And his girlfriend and I ran down to the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:53

ramp and we were so excited to see him. And it just like I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:01:58

said, I fell in love with the uniform at that time. And it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:00

stuck in my head ever since I was four years old.

Howard Brown: 00:02:03

I think it's it's something that you see. And like

Howard Brown: 00:02:07

other people like they would look at like a Hollywood star or

Howard Brown: 00:02:10

a singer or a celebrity and athlete. But you saw your

Howard Brown: 00:02:13

brother and that just became the vision of who you want it to be

Howard Brown: 00:02:17

as such impressionable at that age. So thanks for sharing that

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as well. So you joined really quickly right out of high

Howard Brown: 00:02:26

school. I mean, how many? How many girls were doing that at

Howard Brown: 00:02:29

that time where young women were doing that at that time? Not

Howard Brown: 00:02:31

many

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:32

now. And I didn't know that. My girlfriend

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:35

in science class, we were supposed to go together. And she

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:37

didn't show up. So I just kept going. I said, this is something

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:41

I can do.

Howard Brown: 00:02:43

And you decided on the Air Force? Yes. Yes. It's

Howard Brown: 00:02:47

incredible. Well, take us through, you know, how does

Howard Brown: 00:02:52

basic training work out for probably one of the few women

Howard Brown: 00:02:56

right? You're you had a class of women? No,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:02:58

we definitely have. It's a bay full

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:00

of oh, that's what the dormitories I call your bay. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:03

they come and check your beds and make sure that they're sharp

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:07

and sharp corners and all that. You don't I met a lot of great

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:11

people. But it's totally separate between the men and the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:14

women. But these are people from all over the country. And that's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:17

my first time I've ever actually had an opportunity to meet

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:20

people that weren't from Wisconsin. So it really was

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:24

interesting. Right?

Howard Brown: 00:03:26

So bows and cheese and then trade that in for the

Howard Brown: 00:03:29

bay in the Air Force. Oh, that's so interesting. Now, you went

Howard Brown: 00:03:33

through training, right? And then you met a guy. Tell me

Howard Brown: 00:03:38

about that.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:40

Well, I really want to see the world and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:43

I end up seeing Mississippi. But I got off the bus. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:47

apparently my husband to be saw me and he realised he really

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:52

wanted to meet me, which I didn't. I didn't know that. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:03:57

we we had an opportunity to join the squadron and it was the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:01

special squad that you would actually go out and be a singer,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:04

you'd be a Drum and Bugle or something like that. And he

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:06

wasn't the one interviewing me and I was toned up. But he

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:10

worked really hard to make sure I could get into the choir and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:13

then we were in the choir together. And after a week, he

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:19

he proposed to me, I couldn't say yes, for a whole week. I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:22

told him I'll give him the answer. And we can use bury down

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:25

every time I saw him. And I realised that yes, that's what I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:28

wanted to do. And we actually got married two months later.

Howard Brown: 00:04:32

He proposed to you a week after meeting you. He did

Howard Brown: 00:04:36

Yes, that's absolutely incredible. And did you get

Howard Brown: 00:04:40

married on base? Or did you go home? What happened? Oh, well,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:43

first of all, I was only 19. So I had to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:45

go home and tell my parents they had actually signed a letter

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:47

saying that I could get married because you were supposed to be

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:49

21 Mississippi and God forbid I don't know why they said yes.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:53

They didn't know anything but it was it was definitely a God

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:04:56

thing that they it was the right thing. They signed it And then

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:01

yeah, I came back and you know, we got married and we couldn't

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:04

even live together because we had we were in squadrons all the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:08

women had been one side of the men had to be together side and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:10

we would get together on the weekends. And, you know, that

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:12

was our time together. And then he left Mississippi before I was

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:16

ready. I still had to keep going through my training. So it like

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:20

I said, the first year, we barely lived together.

Howard Brown: 00:05:22

Did your parents get to meet him before they kind

Howard Brown: 00:05:25

of approved it? No, you just told them about Craig.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:28

I did. I did. Oh, my thing just see a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:30

pitcher was not a good pitcher. He was he was just come up with

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:35

some shorts. So but I really, definitely got things I know, I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:40

wouldn't let my daughter's do that. So

Howard Brown: 00:05:43

different time, different time for sure.

Howard Brown: 00:05:46

Alright, so he leaves and take me through because you he got

Howard Brown: 00:05:52

deployed. Right?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:54

Not right away, not right away. He was an

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:05:56

enlisted flier. So when he left Mississippi, he went to his

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:01

first assignment. And finally that that's why a lot of people

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:03

do get married because they have what's called Joint spouse. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:07

if you're, there's no reason I was supposed to go to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:09

Philippines by myself. And, you know, he was being sent to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:12

Oklahoma, because that was the next part of his training as

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:15

enlisted flyer on on the AWACS. So it just turned out that

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:19

that's, you know, knew we wanted to be together. And then I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:23

joined him a little bit later. But you know, I was in combat

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:28

boots in fatigues. And he was in blue. So that's what I wanted

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:31

that blue uniform, and it just didn't work out. I was assigned

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:35

to a mobile unit that kind of like MASH, and live in tents.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:39

And that kind of thing is like, what am I doing? But, you know,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:42

it's definitely an adventure for sure. Right?

Howard Brown: 00:06:45

Right. Right. So now after his training, then

Howard Brown: 00:06:49

take me through your apart quite a bit of your of your marriage

Howard Brown: 00:06:53

as well. So he take me through some of his deployment, well,

Howard Brown: 00:06:56

when

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:56

he could go on deployment for 30 days at a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:06:59

time. And that was like maybe every three months. But I was

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:02

doing my thing. I was working full time. And so that kept me

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:06

very occupied and everything. So it but then finally, I just I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:11

couldn't stay in the military no longer it was just really time

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:14

for me to get out. And I had already kind of started with

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:16

Mary Kay just to be with the girlfriends because there was 21

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:20

men to every woman in my career field. And I thought that's not

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:23

a good fit for me. So with Mary Kay was like women that were

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:27

very emotionally and spiritually aligned with way I want it to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:31

be.

Howard Brown: 00:07:33

Okay, well, we'll get to get to the career and

Howard Brown: 00:07:35

then the long, you know, for decades at Mary Kay, but take me

Howard Brown: 00:07:39

through now. So you when did you exit the Air Force? How many

Howard Brown: 00:07:42

years were you in

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:44

three active and seven reserve, which

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:46

means you're going in one or two days a month, and then two

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:49

weeks, and I end up all the way in Alaska for my two weeks I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:53

have it. It was kind of nice to be in the reserves. It was

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:07:55

definitely a lot different than, you know, full time. But we had

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:00

some good times.

Howard Brown: 00:08:01

I probably should have said this earlier. But

Howard Brown: 00:08:03

thank you, and and Craig for your service. So our pleasure.

Howard Brown: 00:08:08

That's gonna be the title of the show. Little little a little

Howard Brown: 00:08:11

teaser there. Right. So all right. So now you've now are in

Howard Brown: 00:08:15

the reserves. And he's he's still active duty. And so he

Howard Brown: 00:08:21

definitely got deployed. So tell me take taking me there. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:24

this was right towards the beginning of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:27

the Gulf War. And yes, he was deployed, and by this time, we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:30

were somewhere else. We were either. We weren't in Oklahoma

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:35

anymore. I believe we were in Virginia. So he gets called up.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:38

And then shortly after that, I got called, and I thought no one

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:42

ever if you're a reservists, but that was the whole point of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:45

being a reservist, you had to be ready to go active duty at any

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:49

time. And I just had a baby. I'm very, very young. And they're

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:53

like, Okay, it's Friday, how soon can you find a babysitter?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:56

When? Monday they said, Okay, we're gonna see you at work on

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:08:59

Monday, and I worked 12 hour days, seven days a week, and he

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:03

even came home for his rotation. And I was still working in the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:06

military. This is not what I wanted to do. But I mean, still

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:11

you feel like it's worthwhile, but in the same aspect, it's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:13

like, I want to be where I can shine. And it wasn't I didn't

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:18

feel like I was showing it all where I was. So it was

Howard Brown: 00:09:22

you had you actually had to get a babysitter

Howard Brown: 00:09:24

for how old was was it? Was it her son?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:27

I don't know, don't we have a daughter

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:28

and it was just I had to find a babysitter and thankfully

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:32

because of his exposure to lots of people, spouses would come

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:36

together that they didn't have jobs a lot of times so yes,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:39

that's how I had to find a babysitter so quickly was one of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:41

his supervisors. Wife, and that's who you know, I hired as

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:09:46

a babysitter.

Howard Brown: 00:09:47

I've heard of that that the military kind of they

Howard Brown: 00:09:49

have your back that they you know that their communities,

Howard Brown: 00:09:52

they live together, they're apart a lot but you know, they

Howard Brown: 00:09:57

do come together and help you out when necessary. That's nice.

Howard Brown: 00:10:00

That's a nice feeling.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:01

It's Yes, it was just so beautiful that,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:04

you know, I had connections, and because otherwise I would have

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:07

been very lonely, and everything else but you know, the spouses

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:11

were all in the same place. So we took care of each other.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:15

Absolutely. Right.

Howard Brown: 00:10:17

And so tell me just a little bit about Craig's

Howard Brown: 00:10:21

career. He enlisted, as you said, enlisted flier. And so he

Howard Brown: 00:10:25

rose up to what rank Chief

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:28

Master Sergeant. And actually, there

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:30

was one, he has a star on his because he was a Command Chief.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:34

So that was like almost the highest. But when we started out

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:37

together, he had two stripes, I only had one, because he had

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:41

college for four years. And I had a little bit of college I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:46

had one semester, so I had one stripe, he had two stripes. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:49

I told him, I said, you know, you're gonna make Master and 20.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:52

Otherwise, you're out because I need you to be at this point. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:56

he, of course, made master sergeant that 20 years, which is

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:10:58

really, really good. And he stayed in for another eight

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:01

years after that,

Howard Brown: 00:11:02

right. And so tell me some of his deployments

Howard Brown: 00:11:04

because he was the Command Chief in a kind of special place. So

Howard Brown: 00:11:07

tell me about that. Well,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:08

he got to go all over the place, you know,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:11

but in the Gulf that, you know, that's kind of we're still in

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:15

the Gulf War, which people don't really realise that we're still

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:17

in that situation. But he did get to a lot of places. But the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:22

as a spouse, I got to go with him. Like, for instance, we had

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:24

a conference in Hawaii, and spouses were expected to be

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:28

there. So that was kind of a fun thing. You know, again, we had

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:32

it, we had some really good people in our lives, to help

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:34

with the children. And we were very blessed with that. But

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:38

yeah, he I was a little jealous that he gets to go all over the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:42

world. And, but it was, he deserved it. He really, really

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:46

worked hard, and everyone loved him. And they still do we have

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:50

friends all over the world frame. And it's just the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:11:52

greatest thing. Now

Howard Brown: 00:11:53

it did. But he had where was he, where he was the

Howard Brown: 00:11:57

master chief where he was in charge. That

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:01

would well our last assignment was in

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:03

Tokyo. So two and a half years. And that was our it's so funny,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:07

because the his first assignment was, was Japan and we commute it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:10

literally, it took us 30 hours to get to see each other. But it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:15

was worth it. That's how we decided to work our life. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:17

then we end the career back in Japan, you know, we went to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:21

Okinawa was the first one. But Tokyo was the second one. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:24

that's where I mean, he was he was treated very well, because

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:27

of the whole country. He was the highest and listen person in the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:30

whole country.

Howard Brown: 00:12:31

What an interesting life and interesting

Howard Brown: 00:12:34

experience that, that the military kind of you carved out

Howard Brown: 00:12:38

and looking back, you know, as a as a, as someone in high school

Howard Brown: 00:12:43

and listening, is that kind of how you saw it playing out? Or

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:47

in some of the ways Yes, because, you know,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:50

you see those movies and their romantic comedies, you know, so,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:54

I mean, I didn't realise what was going to happen, but it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:56

just, and everybody always thought, Oh, you're such a great

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:12:59

couple, we would go everywhere, and all kinds of such a good

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:01

couple. And some people would say I do brother and sister,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:04

because we did kind of have that hometown. He's from Iowa. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:08

he's very fair, from Wisconsin. And so a lot of times people

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:12

say, you guys, brother and sister, you know, but most of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:14

the time, they said, Look at you guys are great couple. And we've

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:18

the newspaper even, we had two different stories in the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:21

newspaper with the pictures with him, you know, grabbing the baby

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:24

from me, and, and that sort of thing. So it was just really

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:27

cool that we had that opportunity. But yeah, both

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:30

times when they talked about deployments, it was our family

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:13:33

that was putting the pictures,

Howard Brown: 00:13:35

right. And so I mean, I can't even imagine how

Howard Brown: 00:13:39

it feels when he's, you know, an active duty in combat, right. I

Howard Brown: 00:13:43

mean, you just don't know your job to hear from him. It's

Howard Brown: 00:13:46

probably sporadic and all that. So I just can't even imagine it.

Howard Brown: 00:13:49

But it's, you lead a very interesting life. And how long

Howard Brown: 00:13:54

have you been married? 41 years. Congratulations. That's

Howard Brown: 00:13:58

absolutely what a blessing that is. Right? That's absolutely

Howard Brown: 00:14:01

amazing. And you are a part for a bunch of it early on. And so

Howard Brown: 00:14:08

any other like cool memories, you know, stories and things

Howard Brown: 00:14:12

like that, that you had with with Craig or the military gave

Howard Brown: 00:14:16

to you?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:17

Basically, you know, like I said, I got

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:19

very active with the spouses group, and mostly where they

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:22

were women, but not necessarily can be a spouse and you know,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:26

the other way, but just that opportunity that we had to be

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:30

together. And it was when those marriages made, you know, just,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:35

it was just very special. And then we have we have two girls

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:39

and they're special. So I don't know I don't, it was just kind

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:14:44

of magical. If you can, that's a good word. That's okay.

Howard Brown: 00:14:47

You can call it whatever you want. It's your

Howard Brown: 00:14:48

experience. You did share a picture with me? I don't know.

Howard Brown: 00:14:53

But I mean, this is you with a rifle in your hands and or is it

Howard Brown: 00:14:56

a machine gun? I mean, I'm 16 here. and everything. Okay, so

Howard Brown: 00:15:01

how I know you now as you know, a very professional mom, and,

Howard Brown: 00:15:05

you know, and Mary Kay and all that. It was, to me, it was

Howard Brown: 00:15:09

like, Oh my God, this this very, very passive, really gentle

Howard Brown: 00:15:14

woman, you know, when she got in her head, I mean, incredible,

Howard Brown: 00:15:19

but you chose that, and that training and that career, and

Howard Brown: 00:15:23

it's, it's a very interesting, you know, perspective because,

Howard Brown: 00:15:27

you know, not only were you in the military, you married the

Howard Brown: 00:15:30

military, so it became your whole life. So now, now, things

Howard Brown: 00:15:35

that I want to get into this next area, because being a two

Howard Brown: 00:15:38

time stage four cancer patient. I know that certain things at

Howard Brown: 00:15:43

the military as far as your health, and I've actually met

Howard Brown: 00:15:46

and mentored some some veterans, and they suffer like I do from

Howard Brown: 00:15:53

PTSD, we call that chemo brain or brain fog. They suffer very

Howard Brown: 00:15:58

severe illness from burn pits. The casualties of this war,

Howard Brown: 00:16:03

right. And your husband also has had a cancer bout as well. So

Howard Brown: 00:16:09

share, you now turned into being a caregiver. After after that,

Howard Brown: 00:16:14

after he retired, so told told me about that.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:18

Well, as you said, he was retired, but I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:20

did find him a couple other jobs. I was like, Well, what is

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:24

he going to do? He's retired but and the lucky thing is that he

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:26

got some jobs that he really, really liked. And that worked

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:29

out very well. And I just lost my train of thought, Well, no,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:34

what

Howard Brown: 00:16:34

are the jobs? What were the jobs? That I did know

Howard Brown: 00:16:36

that he did that? You got it?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:38

Oh, well, he actually worked for a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:39

congressman, the House of Representatives two different

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:42

times. I was very active in Panama City. I was an ambassador

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:46

with the Chamber of Commerce, a lot of people knew who we are,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:48

because the Deatherage is kind of an unusual name. So people

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:52

know him in the community, and they knew me in the community

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:16:54

also. That's

Howard Brown: 00:16:56

cool. So the question actually was when he

Howard Brown: 00:16:58

got sick, okay, so became a caregiver to him. He got

Howard Brown: 00:17:02

diagnosed, but I'll let you tell that story. Yes,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:05

well, he hadn't, for some reason, they

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:08

weren't checking PSA for a while. And then he realised that

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:13

something was wrong. He wasn't feeling well, it was just he's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:15

something was wrong. So his boss happened to be your ologists.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:18

And they immediately, you know, they, he went to the doctor with

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:22

stage four cancer, he had already metastasized his

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:24

prostate cancer had metastasized through his skull and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:27

everywhere. So it was very frightening time for us. And our

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:32

daughter was engaged. And she actually got married in six

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:36

weeks, because we didn't know you know, where we were. But

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:40

they started do some really, really good advanced treatments.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:43

And it's made such a difference to stop the growth. So that's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:47

where we are right now that there's no more no new growth.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:50

And we were back in the other. Let's see, we moved to Panama

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:53

City. They said, Well, you know what I can give you 10 good

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:17:56

years, and I started subtracting, and we were at six.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:00

And I was like, Oh my gosh, I want to have for yourself, how

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:02

is this gonna work. And thankfully, he's got really,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:04

really good doctors here, also in South Florida. And they

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:08

actually said, you know, you met all the markers. I don't know

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:11

why you couldn't live another 20 years. So that just really

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:15

settled me down and realise that, you know, in 20 years, and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:18

all they're going to have other advanced things that that help.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:21

So we just have to have faith that it's going to work and the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:24

fact that we're military, there's like people praying all

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:27

over the country and all over the world. So it's almost like

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:30

they're praying, you know, around the whole day, because

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:33

everybody lives in different places. And but they everyone

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:36

knows his story. And I want to make sure people did because we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:39

need to save more people. And they need to get checked more

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:18:42

often. Yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:18:44

so this is where you and I are total alignment,

Howard Brown: 00:18:47

right? So I because of cancer, one was in 1989, and 90 for me,

Howard Brown: 00:18:52

and then colon cancer now in 2016. To present, I had a huge

Howard Brown: 00:18:56

network, the digital world, Facebook actually worked out

Howard Brown: 00:18:59

good because I was able to share my story. And I received a lot

Howard Brown: 00:19:03

of prayers, a lot of giving back to me, it actually helped me be

Howard Brown: 00:19:08

able to all that energy to get through a really hard time. So I

Howard Brown: 00:19:12

called the worldwide community is a beautiful thing. I'm so

Howard Brown: 00:19:17

glad that he's achieved stability at this point in time

Howard Brown: 00:19:20

and they are making advances, but that this will give me a

Howard Brown: 00:19:23

quick timeout in the show and tell everyone to go get

Howard Brown: 00:19:26

screened. Right? Meaning saves lives. So right now it's it's

Howard Brown: 00:19:32

colorectal cancer awareness month. And so I wear blue, and

Howard Brown: 00:19:35

basically I go get screened, right? So for women, right, you

Howard Brown: 00:19:39

got to go get your mammography, your lady doctor, for men, it's

Howard Brown: 00:19:43

your prostate, everyone for colorectal cancer. I actually

Howard Brown: 00:19:47

say go to the dentist because we didn't do that through the

Howard Brown: 00:19:49

pandemic but if you go get screened, you know and keep on

Howard Brown: 00:19:52

top of your health, because you're not your best you you're

Howard Brown: 00:19:57

not your optimal self if you're not healthy and and you're not

Howard Brown: 00:20:00

feeling well. So please go do that. So that's a, just a

Howard Brown: 00:20:04

general message for everybody and all that. Take me through a

Howard Brown: 00:20:07

little more modern date. So now you're back together. And you

Howard Brown: 00:20:11

have two beautiful daughters one got married a little earlier.

Howard Brown: 00:20:15

And you have some grandsons.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:17

So we do the amazing thing. You know, we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:22

moved to Tallahassee after we got the first diagnosis, because

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:25

our daughter was going to law school there. And then when she

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:28

graduated, I had a few church friends. But other than that, we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:31

didn't really know people and her other daughter was like, you

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:33

know, your grandson is here, you need to move down here. And we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:36

literally live a mile from them, which are not, I mean, they just

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:40

love it. And we love it. Because we can be around the kids, we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:44

have one, that's five, he's in kindergarten, and the other one

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:47

is one and a half. And boy, he's into a lot of things. But we get

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:50

to be there and watch these boys grow up. And it's just such a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:20:53

joy. You really

Howard Brown: 00:20:54

just see how you lit up. Yeah, I mentioned the

Howard Brown: 00:20:56

grids. You just totally lit up and you're beaming. It's really

Howard Brown: 00:21:02

wonderful. So all right now, you know, it's really interesting.

Howard Brown: 00:21:06

You spent almost four decades with Mary Kay. So you started

Howard Brown: 00:21:10

out as a little bit of a sideline in the military, and

Howard Brown: 00:21:13

you're still with them. So for those that don't have as much

Howard Brown: 00:21:16

detail, and I don't, and maybe a lot of my audience seems to be

Howard Brown: 00:21:19

there to talk about, you know, Mary Kay, then when you join and

Howard Brown: 00:21:22

talk about Mary Kay now and what it's meant to your life?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:26

Well, as I said, I joined while I was still

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:28

in the military, and it was just such a great opportunity to be

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:31

around women that I didn't have that. And I just played with it.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:35

I didn't really take it. I was very well trained. And then one

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:39

of my mentors said, you know, don't you have any bills like

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:41

no, because we got a house that was, you know, at our level

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:44

instead of getting a fancy house and that kind of thing. So she

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:46

says you need a debt. So I'm on a Thunderbird, I don't think

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:49

that's a to mend. But I had to make the payments. And within

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:52

six months, I actually earned the use of a Mary Kay career

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:55

car, it's totally incorrect.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:21:57

Got the Thunderbird. And, you know, we're just I grew up, we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:00

never had new cars, we always had a used car that was in the

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:03

shop all the time. So if you have a car that's new, usually

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:07

are not getting repairs. So we did that for like 22 years, 11

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:13

cars, 22 years and diamond rings and the whole magical Cinderella

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:17

prizes. So but we move so many times. And sometimes people say

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:22

oh, I'll stay with you. Or I don't want you to ship it.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:25

That's some pay off. Find somebody here. It's like, no. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:28

this last time, our last final move here. COVID had just

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:34

started our movers actually had to wear gloves and masks. So it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:37

was that March where everything's kind of shut down.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:40

And then with this cancer, we stayed isolated for three years,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:43

which is very, very challenging, because I'm kind of an

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:46

introvert, but I'm also a social introvert. So I've got to have

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:49

that support from people. And because I'm finally getting out,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:53

I do have a lot of good supportive friends. So it's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:22:56

making a big difference.

Howard Brown: 00:22:58

So I want to tell you that, again, I stayed

Howard Brown: 00:23:01

isolated and wrote a book from cancer to COVID. So I get it.

Howard Brown: 00:23:05

But I want to tell you the thing that is intriguing to me, you

Howard Brown: 00:23:09

know, you're You're like an original entrepreneur. I mean,

Howard Brown: 00:23:12

when you're running your own business with Mary Kay, you're

Howard Brown: 00:23:14

cultivating the client, you're serving the client, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:23:18

you're prospecting for new clients. And you have to really

Howard Brown: 00:23:21

believe in the company and believe in the products and what

Howard Brown: 00:23:26

are the things that you're proudest about about Mary Kay?

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:29

Well, I actually, you know, met her,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:32

which is really kind of fun, because her picture, actually,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:35

my LinkedIn account has the picture of she and I together.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:38

But her story, you know, she retired and then she went to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:42

write a book. And instead of just having a book, she decided,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:45

oh, my gosh, this is a plan for selling. So that's how she ended

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:49

up. You know, she wants to open her own company after being

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:52

retired. And it was for women to really bond and take care of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:23:57

each other because back then, in the 1960s, women were not even

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:01

close to the man's dollar. And even now, we're still it could

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:05

be equal jobs, but men tend to make more than the women do. And

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:10

so with Mary Kay, you can decide how many how much you want to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:13

work how many people you want to see in a week, you set your own

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:16

goals, and you can be wherever you want to be. Which is that's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:21

really more to my heart. And remember, my parents were

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:24

entrepreneurs, they owned a farm they had 30 milking cows. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:28

that's what they did twice a day twice a day. So that kind of

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:32

gave me that um, that okay, I don't I need to work in when I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:35

work I'm working when I'm not everything gets shut down and we

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:39

spend time together as a family.

Howard Brown: 00:24:41

And then I think what the famous things are

Howard Brown: 00:24:44

you've been to convention right? I mean, those are like amazing

Howard Brown: 00:24:47

get togethers or they annual or

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:49

they are annual now they shut they

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:51

cancelled it for like three years during Covid they wanted

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:54

so anyways, so I was able to go back and it was just so there's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:24:58

like 7000 Women They're and there are male consultants. So

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:01

there's a smattering of you know, males there too. But

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:04

mostly it's a women's company. And it just so great because I'm

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:08

away. So I get to see, I don't get to see them every week, like

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:11

if I was still in Oklahoma, but that's really it's like a

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:15

reunion, you know, it's just like, it's like, and you can be

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:18

friends. If there's a Mary Kay badge and somebody, you're gonna

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:22

walk up to them and say, Hey, I'm with Mary Kay too, and

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:23

you're instantly friends, because we all have that same

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:26

background. And that makes it real. And it was the same way to

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:29

Air Force. You know, when you're wearing your blue, you know, oh,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:32

he's military, you're going to go there. But that's why I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:34

worked so well with Mary Kay, because we support each other.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:25:37

And it's just so beautiful. Yeah.

Howard Brown: 00:25:40

So you've had a very interesting and fulfilling

Howard Brown: 00:25:44

life. It's thrown you a lot, some curveballs, you're

Howard Brown: 00:25:48

separated, you're together. And it's really thank you for

Howard Brown: 00:25:52

sharing this. It's really amazing. And I, you know, I've

Howard Brown: 00:25:57

just, I have a dear friend of mine, John, Robert white, we

Howard Brown: 00:26:01

call him Bobby. He was a Navy SEAL. And that's really the

Howard Brown: 00:26:03

closest exposure, John Kenneth draw was a sergeant in the Army,

Howard Brown: 00:26:07

and he deployed, Bobby's deployed a lot more as a seal as

Howard Brown: 00:26:11

a commander. He's retired, both are retired now. And both alive

Howard Brown: 00:26:15

and hopefully, you know, we're still doing well, these are my

Howard Brown: 00:26:18

high school friends. So that's about the closest taste of

Howard Brown: 00:26:20

military that I got. Except for I love watching a lot of movies,

Howard Brown: 00:26:25

war movies, and all that stuff, too. But thank you for sharing

Howard Brown: 00:26:28

that. It's really a very different perspective, coming

Howard Brown: 00:26:32

from the spouse who's also you know, within, in service as

Howard Brown: 00:26:35

well. So I don't know if I'm allowed to say this or not. But

Howard Brown: 00:26:38

I want to salute you, both you and Greg, for that, and it's

Howard Brown: 00:26:42

truly amazing. So we're at the time of the show, I'm going to

Howard Brown: 00:26:46

ask you to put on your sunglasses. We're going to join

Howard Brown: 00:26:48

that together. And this is the shining, brightly spotlight. So

Howard Brown: 00:26:52

all those are cool shades. So we're going to show everyone in

Howard Brown: 00:26:54

in studio picture, you look great with a pink background,

Howard Brown: 00:26:57

and share some inspiration, a story a quote, something that

Howard Brown: 00:27:03

you want to share about being shining brightly, and then hand

Howard Brown: 00:27:06

the show back to me for calls, but also tell people how to get

Howard Brown: 00:27:08

in touch with you.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:10

Okay, well, my best place to reach me is

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:13

through my website, and it's Mary kay.com/jeanette. D. That's

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:18

why it's up there Jeanette de. It's best place to reach me it

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:21

has my phone number and everything else is there. And I

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:26

lost them wherever. So

Howard Brown: 00:27:28

the lot, it's okay. The last is is that I

Howard Brown: 00:27:30

always end the show with a little inspirational quote or

Howard Brown: 00:27:34

story or something you want to share. No

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:37

matter what, never give up.

Howard Brown: 00:27:41

Just never give up. Never

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:42

give up. Because you can let things in.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:46

And you just have to realise, okay, that's, that's today,

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:27:48

tomorrow's a new day. Never give up.

Howard Brown: 00:27:52

A simple short, hard hitting, never give up. And

Howard Brown: 00:27:56

I actually say that as well. Because when you come from the

Howard Brown: 00:28:00

cancer world, you got to keep going. And we actually have a

Howard Brown: 00:28:04

little expression there. I'll keep it clean. It's called k f,

Howard Brown: 00:28:07

g, okay? And keep frigging going. You can replace the F

Howard Brown: 00:28:11

with anything you want. But keep that thing going. Because we

Howard Brown: 00:28:13

don't really have a choice. You have to and just like the

Howard Brown: 00:28:16

military, sometimes, you take your orders, and you gotta you

Howard Brown: 00:28:19

gotta execute. And I understand that as well. This, this has

Howard Brown: 00:28:22

been a fascinating show. I'm going to take my glasses off now

Howard Brown: 00:28:25

and close the show. And thank you. So this, this has been

Howard Brown: 00:28:30

amazing. And thank you. This has been great. Again, the shining,

Howard Brown: 00:28:35

brightly show is, is doing great. I want to thank you to

Howard Brown: 00:28:40

some of my sponsors, front edge publishing, my book publisher

Howard Brown: 00:28:44

read the spirit magazine, which I blog and almost every week it

Howard Brown: 00:28:47

goes out to over 50,000 people and amplify you my my podcast

Howard Brown: 00:28:52

production team. I just I need your help you and thank you I'm

Howard Brown: 00:28:56

grateful for you for that helped as far as getting in touch. The

Howard Brown: 00:29:00

show is always posted on Wednesday mornings on my

Howard Brown: 00:29:03

website, and on shining hydrogen, bright

Howard Brown: 00:29:06

brightly.captivate.fm which is the syndication of 24 channels,

Howard Brown: 00:29:10

as well. And on my website, you can learn about the shining

Howard Brown: 00:29:13

bright in the book, you can learn about my paid speaking and

Howard Brown: 00:29:17

my motivational speaking, as well as the podcast and my

Howard Brown: 00:29:21

advocacy and my advocacy. I focus on the folks in screening

Howard Brown: 00:29:26

and cancer treatment and survivorship. And I also do

Howard Brown: 00:29:29

entrepreneurship through Babson College and interfaith relations

Howard Brown: 00:29:33

through the American Jewish Committee and those are my

Howard Brown: 00:29:36

passions and if you follow your passions, so remember, if we

Howard Brown: 00:29:40

choose to shine brightly, choose to shine brightly for ourselves,

Howard Brown: 00:29:43

and then lift up others in our communities and in our

Howard Brown: 00:29:47

neighbourhoods. The world won't be a better place. Thanks,

Howard Brown: 00:29:50

Jeanette. What a great show. Thank you.

Jeanette Deatherage: 00:29:52

Thank you