VOICE ONE:
Poet Mattie Stepanek lived for only thirteen years. But he had an important effect on the world. Former President Jimmy Carter praised the young boy as “the most extraordinary person” he had ever known.
Mattie Stepanek lived in Rockville, Maryland. He suffered from a rare form of a muscle-weakening disease called muscular dystrophy. This same disease had killed his three brothers when Mattie died on June twenty-second.
Mattie’s goal in life was to help bring peace to the world. At age three, he was already writing poetry. He began writing after one of his brothers died.
A publisher printed two hundred copies of his collected poems in two thousand one. The book was called “Heartsongs.” Before long, people across the country wanted copies. He wrote four more books of poetry. They have sold more than one million copies.
VOICE TWO:
Mattie appeared on television programs and became famous. But he was a very sick boy. He had to use a wheelchair to get around. Mattie spent a lot of time in hospitals. Yet he never seemed sad or angry. Here Mattie Stepanek reads from his poem “About Things That Matter.”
(POEM)
“A person by my name and being existed
With a strong spirit and an eternal mindset
To become a peacemaker for all
By sharing the things that really matter.”
VOICE ONE:
A very successful business leader also died this year. Estee (es-stay) Lauder died April twenty-fourth at the age of ninety-seven. She had sold beauty products for more than seventy years. Her business, the Estee Lauder Companies, began on the streets of New York City.
She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York. Her parents had come to America from Hungary. They did not have much money. But they did have a beautiful daughter.
Estee’s uncle was a chemist. Together, they worked to develop skin care creams in the nineteen-twenties when Estee was still a teenager. She took her products to New York City and stopped women on the street. She let them try the creams for free, calling the products “jars of hope.”
VOICE TWO:
Soon, young Estee was selling the products to large stores that sold things to wealthy women. She wrote powerful marketing messages such as “I have the secrets” or “start the New Year with a new face.” She also used many smart sales tricks.
Estee Mentzer married Joseph Lauder in nineteen thirty. He became her business partner. Estee Lauder once said, “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” In nineteen ninety-five, she decided she had worked long enough, so she retired. Today, her two sons and a grandson lead the Estee Lauder Companies. The business is worth about ten thousand million dollars. It employs more than twenty thousand people.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Singer Robert Merrill lived a long and musical life. He died at home in New York State on October twenty-third. Records say he was either eighty-five or eighty-seven years old.
For thirty years, his rich baritone voice rang out at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Mister Merrill recorded popular music as well as opera music. He also played a leading part in the musical play “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Robert Merrill took pleasure in New York City life. He often traveled on the underground subway train to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. For many years, he sang America’s national song at the opening game of the New York Yankees baseball team.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Merrill was born in the Brooklyn area of New York in about nineteen seventeen. As a young man he worked in a poorly paid job in the area of New York where clothing is made.
One day, he heard singers preparing for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera. On that day, the young man decided what he wanted to do with his life.
Robert Merrill worked and studied hard at his music. He sang at weddings and in hotels. In nineteen forty-five, the Metropolitan Opera hired Robert Merrill. His first performance was in “La Traviata.” He sang more than five hundred performances of operas there during his long life.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English.
