Stories With A Heart
People are always coming up to the show and saying, "It's a perfect Sunday morning story..."
So, exactly what is a perfect Sunday Morning story? CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell explains:
Well, you may remember a few years back, the story of George Dawson: He'd worked hard all his life, sending all seven of his children through college. But the one thing George never had time for was learning to read or write, that is, until he was 98.
Pointing at a scribble Dawson said, "I changed my name because I couldn't read or write. This was how I wrote my name."
George Dawson's life was a perfect Sunday Morning story.
And so was Maisie DeVore's, 82 when we first met her, heading out for another day collecting [aluminum] cans.
If she wasn't combing the streets for cans, CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara reported, she and her rickety old pickup were scouring every back road in the county, rain or shine.
It was Maisie's dream to buy a swimming pool for her hometown of Eskridge, Kan., a dream she pursued one can at a time. Her progress measured in nickels and dimes.
The perfect Sunday Morning story can come in all shapes and sizes:
Take the petite Picasso, Alexandra Nechita, just 10-years-old and Jean Keene, the eagle lady of Homer, Alaska.
To her way of thinking, CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen reported, Jean Keene is squaring accounts with nature, piece by piece to the eagles.
Talking about herself, Keene says, "Jean's a tough old bird, to say the least. She just loves those birds."
[And] we'll never forget little Louie Charduilly, who lost his battle with a rare blood disease, but won a place in our hearts.
"What can I say? Smiling is better than crying," little Louie said, "It's better than crying."
Sunday Morning stories come from all sorts of surprising places:
Florida, fulfilling its promise as a retirement paradise, is a fine place to be living out those last well-earned years of relaxation. And that's exactly what correspondent Martha Teichner reported the horses she found were doing at this retirement home for them.
Some from even further a field: the mountains of Rwanda, the hills of Tuscany, and the villages of Vietnam, where CBS News Correspondent Bob Simon reported from the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the battle for the citadel in Hue, which is a soccer field now.
But most of the show's stories come from hometowns across America.
At Miami Beach High School, Martha Teichner met Doug Burris, who has multiple sclerosis. He is unable to move any part of his body except for his head. It is a difference, but not a drawback. He played "Son of a Preacher Man" with his band.
Burris is a band teacher who taught his kids a lot more than music. He said, "They get to know me and sooner or later, they don't see the chair. They just see me. That's a very valuable lesson."
And if there's one lesson learned, it's that nothing makes a Sunday Morning story better than a great ending.
For Doug Burris and company, it was being there to see them win first place in a battle of the bands.
For George Dawson, it was publishing his life story, at age 102.
And for Maisie DeVore, the can-collector from Kansas, it was all about making a big splash. We were there when, thirty years and some six million cans later, Maisie raised the money to buy her town a pool.
The perfect Sunday Morning story, what is it really? It is a story with heart about people with soul.
Originally aired Jan. 25, 2004