WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE - DONNA NIGH

(MUSIC PLAYS)

Reba McEntire: Every cause needs a champion and people with developmental disabilities found theirs in former Oklahoma First Lady Donna Nigh who brought her husband, George, along with her. 

No Audio: Donna Nigh - First Lady of Oklahoma, 1963, 1978 - 1985.

Donna Nigh: In the late 60s George, my husband, who was then Lieutenant Governor, was given the challenge by the sitting Governor to visit all state facilities. Well, of course, that included the three state schools, Hissom, Pauls Valley and Enid. So we visited those and until that time in my life I would have to admit I knew nothing about developmental disabilities. I was just astounded at the numbers and at the people, younger people and older people, that I saw there and the wonderful care they were getting, but at the same time I saw that segment that I felt like did not belong there. So when we came home, I told George that I decided that any volunteer work, spare time I had, I wanted to spend with that segment of society. 

No Audio: George Nigh - Lt. Governor 1958-1963, 1970-1978. Governor 1963, 1978-1986.

George Nigh: When I got ready to run for Governor - I was Lieutenant Governor - I had a family talk and my wife and my son and my daughter. And we talked and I said, "I want to run for Governor, what do you think?" And each of them had a condition that they would work for me and support me provided, and that this - my kids' was that they could be their selves, they didn't always be the Governor's kids. They could be themselves. 

And Donna said, "I'll work for you if you'll do something for the mentally retarded." She said, "I want that - I want you to know that, you run for Governor, you owe me the commitment that you're going to do something about that." And, so, before I even got in the race, she was working on me, so that pillow talk was pretty straightforward, and then, in the mansion, of course pillow talk works. 

Donna Nigh: Then when George became Governor, I saw that as my opportunity to do something significant and, you know, you have to be up front and honest in saying it's a lot easier to get things done when your husband's Governor than when he's not Governor. 

Reba McEntire: Mrs. Nigh knew there were many people in the institutions who were capable of living and working in their communities if they had the proper support. She knew there were sheltered workshops around the state where adults could work, but they needed a place to live. 

Donna Nigh: I initially had heard about a group home program through... when all the governors would get together and the wives would meet separately and talk about things that were going on in our states, and I heard through that, through the Governors' Association about the group home program. 

Reba McEntire: Mrs. Nigh brought the idea to the Governor and reminded him of his promise. 

Donna Nigh: "If you can get the legislature to fund it, I will put it in my budget. If you can get them to okay..." So... but he said, "You're going to have to do it on your own." 

George Nigh: In my first years particularly, we were getting used to the mansion. She was the principal cook for breakfast, for the legislators, and she served it, and they just thought that was great, that the First Lady would be the hostess, and actually work in the kitchen and do that. And I finally said, "Well, wait a minute. Let me have Donna come here and explain." And she'd come out of the kitchen, and depending on how good the breakfast was, it might be how much money we got from the legislature. 

Donna Nigh: We really just wanted enough money to start a pilot program to prove to them, to prove to Oklahoma, that it would work. 

George Nigh: But it took lobbying. It took clever maneuvering, in some ways, of calling to the attention of the legislature. "Now, you need to address this problem,"  and no one could have done it better than Donna did, and I salute her for doing that. 

Donna Nigh: And they really had no idea what I was talking about, but I think more than anything, they wanted me to leave them alone, get out of their office, and, but whatever, it worked. 

Reba McEntire: In 1980, the legislature gave Mrs. Nigh $1 million to fund a pilot group home program. Working with the DHS Developmental Disabilities Services Division, Mrs. Nigh and staff identified non-profit agencies and potential groups around the state to receive the grants. Ten group homes were funded in the initial pilot. 

No Audio: Jean Cooper - Developmental Disabilities Services Division Director, 1983 - 1988.

Jean Cooper: All the group homes back then were done through non-profits, and our goal was to have family members engaged with the local folks to make that happen. We just felt like it added the level of monitoring you couldn't pay for. 

No Audio: Effie Foster Ballard - Parent and Director of Oklahoma Production Center, Tahlequah.

Effie Foster Ballard: When the group home program started, we were one of the first ten group homes that were set up. We got one of those. I was very pleased with that, and I was very pleased that Donna came down, you know, for our grand opening. 

Jean Cooper: It was a very, very modest beginning. But that's kind of what Donna had sold them on at the legislature is, "Let me just show you, and if it works, then let's look at expanding." Which they did, and they were very responsive to that need. 

Donna Nigh: They were so successful and people recognized the fact that these homes were... the people in them were good neighbors. 

Jean Cooper: Back in those days people, of course, were scared that something might happen to the neighborhood, or their property values would go down, that these people represented a risk to people in the neighborhood and, of course, universally discovered that they were really good neighbors. That they contributed to the neighborhood, that they were fine folks to have next door. So it was a sort of an eye-opening education for most of Oklahoma. 

Reba McEntire: The first ten homes proved to be such a success that the legislature continued to fund the program and even named it after Mrs. Nigh. Within a few short years, the Donna Nigh Group Home Program grew to include nearly 100 homes across the state. 

Jean Cooper: There's never been... I can't imagine ever anybody having a more wonderful advocate than having Donna Nigh. 

Reba McEntire: Because of Mrs. Nigh's advocacy and in celebration of her 50th birthday, a group of friends donated money and formed the Donna Nigh Foundation. The mission of this foundation was and continues to be to support the needs of Oklahomans with developmental disabilities that cannot be met with public funding. 

George Nigh: I was very pleased that President Clinton appointed her to the President's Committee on Mental Retardation and she served there for many years. 

Reba McEntire: The Nighs were also instrumental in raising public awareness by creating events such as the Governor's Conferences on Developmental Disabilities and the Governor's Disability Employment Awards. Their legacy lives on today through these events that have been sponsored by every Oklahoma Governor since. 

George Nigh: "Do what you can with what you have where you are" is a Teddy Roosevelt quote. But I think one even better than that was that he just said, "The strength of the President is the bully pulpit." I think the strength of the Governor in Oklahoma is the bully pulpit, as you can set the agenda. You don't get what you want. Under the constitution we have what is known as a very weak governor. You don't have a lot of strong things, so you have to use the bully pulpit. And so the bully pulpit was where the strength of so many things happened in our administration. For example, the Governor's Conferences, the various ones that we had. "I... the bully pulpit. Let's have a conference. Let's get people involved." 

Donna Nigh: I think the thing I'm most proud of is the awareness of developmental disabilities because, you know, when I grew up, I knew nothing about it because these people were separated. Now they're not. They're a part of our community and live and work with us, and that's as it should be. 

George Nigh: We always need to be aware of the fact that we need to build roads and bridges, we need to have colleges, we need to do a... but we never want to ignore people with special needs. And it takes a champion many times to call that to their attention. And if things happened in my administration specifically in this area about which we're talking here, it was because of Donna. 

Donna Nigh: I think it's a star in Oklahoma's crown because we recognized what was needed and we did it.