THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE with Jeanette Deatherage

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

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

I'm very excited to welcome Jeannette Deatherage Jeanette,

how are you? Welcome.

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

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

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

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

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

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

bit, you know, short bio.

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

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

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

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

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

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

been a really exciting roller coaster, to be honest.

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

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

shine brightly every day?

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

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

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

that it's just wonderful to be around

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

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

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

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

happened?

Well, I can still see the airport, my

husband, my brother came home from Vietnam and his dress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

many

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

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

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

I can do.

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

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

basic training work out for probably one of the few women

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

we definitely have. It's a bay full

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

interesting. Right?

So bows and cheese and then trade that in for the

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

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

about that.

Well, I really want to see the world and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did your parents get to meet him before they kind

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

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

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

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

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

different time, different time for sure.

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

deployed. Right?

Not right away, not right away. He was an

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it's definitely an adventure for sure. Right?

Right. Right. So now after his training, then

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

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

when

he could go on deployment for 30 days at a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

very emotionally and spiritually aligned with way I want it to

be.

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

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

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

years were you in

three active and seven reserve, which

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

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

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

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

some good times.

I probably should have said this earlier. But

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

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

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

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

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

this was right towards the beginning of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

you had you actually had to get a babysitter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a babysitter.

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

have your back that they you know that their communities,

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

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

That's a nice feeling.

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

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

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

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

Absolutely. Right.

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

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

rose up to what rank Chief

Master Sergeant. And actually, there

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

years after that,

right. And so tell me some of his deployments

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

tell me about that. Well,

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

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

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

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

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

a conference in Hawaii, and spouses were expected to be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

greatest thing. Now

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

master chief where he was in charge. That

would well our last assignment was in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

whole country.

What an interesting life and interesting

experience that, that the military kind of you carved out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the newspaper even, we had two different stories in the

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

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

cool that we had that opportunity. But yeah, both

times when they talked about deployments, it was our family

that was putting the pictures,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

to you?

Basically, you know, like I said, I got

very active with the spouses group, and mostly where they

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

after he retired, so told told me about that.

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

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

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

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

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

what

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

that he did that? You got it?

Oh, well, he actually worked for a

congressman, the House of Representatives two different

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

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

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

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

also. That's

cool. So the question actually was when he

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

stage four cancer, he had already metastasized his

prostate cancer had metastasized through his skull and

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

daughter was engaged. And she actually got married in six

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

they started do some really, really good advanced treatments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

everybody lives in different places. And but they everyone

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

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

often. Yeah,

so this is where you and I are total alignment,

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

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

network, the digital world, Facebook actually worked out

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

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

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

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

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

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

quick timeout in the show and tell everyone to go get

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

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

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

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

your prostate, everyone for colorectal cancer. I actually

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

have two beautiful daughters one got married a little earlier.

And you have some grandsons.

So we do the amazing thing. You know, we

moved to Tallahassee after we got the first diagnosis, because

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

joy. You really

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

car, it's totally incorrect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

making a big difference.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

believe in the company and believe in the products and what

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

Well, I actually, you know, met her,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

spend time together as a family.

And then I think what the famous things are

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

get togethers or they annual or

they are annual now they shut they

cancelled it for like three years during Covid they wanted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it's just so beautiful. Yeah.

So you've had a very interesting and fulfilling

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

in touch with you.

Okay, well, my best place to reach me is

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

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

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

lost them wherever. So

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

always end the show with a little inspirational quote or

story or something you want to share. No

matter what, never give up.

Just never give up. Never

give up. Because you can let things in.

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

tomorrow's a new day. Never give up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

show is always posted on Wednesday mornings on my

website, and on shining hydrogen, bright

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

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

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

my motivational speaking, as well as the podcast and my

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

and cancer treatment and survivorship. And I also do

entrepreneurship through Babson College and interfaith relations

through the American Jewish Committee and those are my

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

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

and then lift up others in our communities and in our

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

Jeanette. What a great show. Thank you.

Thank you