“‘Whose birthday is it?’” I asked the nurse.

“‘Oh, it’s not a birthday party,’ she said. arlo Thomas ‘It’s an off-chemo party.’ “I had never seen anything like this. All The Lebanese-American these little children were celebrating one child’s turn for the better, with their parents and grandparents standing Megastar Behind by with tears in their eyes. If this child could make it, maybe their beloved child St. Jude Children's would, too. “In that moment, I breathed in what my father had been holding in his Research Hospital heart for so many years. I had walked into a place where hope lived. A place families had traveled to from all over ebanese-American, father-daughter TV stars Danny and the country, terrified, carrying death L Marlo Thomas are among the most famous Americans of sentences for their babies. And I knew all time. Yet, they are perhaps most remembered for their that my father’s spirit would always leading roles at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. live there.”

Actress, author, feminist, humanitarian recognition from the president of the he was gone, she wanted the and philanthropist Marlo Thomas has country that had opened its arms to hospital administration received numerous awards, including them when they first arrived here.” to know she and her I had walked into a Grammy, four Emmys and a Golden siblings would a place where Globe. But in 2014, when United States Prime time TV superstars Marlo be there to hope lived. President Barack Obama awarded her Thomas and her father Danny were support the the Presidential Medal of Freedom, household names throughout America institution “And I fell in love the highest honor an American civilian for decades. But it was Danny’s work to if they were with this wonderful can receive, tears swelled in her eyes. establish St. Jude Children’s Research needed, she place,” said Thomas. President Obama quoted her father Hospital and Marlo’s to sustain it for recently told “These children have Danny Thomas, saying, “There are two which, many say, they will always be HOME. changed my life. types of people in the world: givers and remembered. In their little faces, takers. The takers sometimes eat better, “When I got to I have seen such but the givers always sleep better.” Marlo has been the hospital the driveway, courage, strength and spokesperson since 1991 and today with the 15-foot compassion, and an serves as St. Jude’s national outreach statue of St. Jude unbelievable capacity director. She heads the fundraising standing tall at the for joy in the face of There are two types of efforts of a hospital established mainly entrance, I sat in such adversity. with the support of her father and the the car, immobilized. people in the world: givers Lebanese-American community. Today I didn’t want to go “I’ve gotten to know and takers. The takers she is known as “the heart of St. Jude.” inside. The sadness was them and their families, sometimes eat better, but the all too fresh. just as my father had. I’ve givers always sleep better. Shortly after Danny Thomas died in been to their graduations 1991, Marlo visited the hospital her “But I pulled myself together and their weddings, and “At that moment, I couldn’t help father established – St. Jude Children’s and went in. In the lobby, a even their funerals. I have but think about my father and my Research Hospital in Memphis, party was going on. There was held a dying child in my immigrant Lebanese grandparents, Tennessee. Even though her father told ice cream and cake. Confetti. arms and said 'goodbye.' I and how proud they would be that his children the work of the hospital Balloons. Happy little children never thought I could bear their granddaughter was receiving this would not be their burden to carry after running around in party hats. such a thing. But I have.”

182 Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA 183 Born into American television But that didn’t sit well with my dad. '70s, where discussions focused on royalty; becoming her own woman He constantly warned me how difficult reproductive rights, equal pay and other Practically every American with a the business was. But he knew I wasn’t issues of importance to women. television in the 1950s and ‘60s saw listening.” Danny Thomas’ shows Make Room for Beyond her iconic TV role, Marlo Daddy and The Danny Thomas Show. Still, Marlo did as her father wished became a major player in her own He was also a regular on the talk show and went to college, something neither right. She became a TV megastar, circuit and an acclaimed comedian of her parents did. “Getting my degree performed on and off Broadway from in nightclubs for most of his 60-year meant everything to them,” she said. 1974 until 2016 – so far, and was the career. And he distinguished himself as second woman ever, after Lucille Ball, to a producer. The day she graduated from the produce her own TV series. University of Southern California as an Legendary star Bob Hope told The English teacher, she handed her father From 1996 to 2002, Thomas played New York Times Danny Thomas was the diploma and said, “This is for you, Jennifer Aniston’s mother on the TV “one of the giants” of the entertainment Dad. Now I’m going to New York to series Friends. She is also a best-selling Marlo and Danny Thomas visiting industry. study acting.” author of six books, with the book and a patient at St. Jude Hospital Photos from the private collection of Marlo Thomas album sets Free to Be … You and Me and “My father used to take me to work with Free to Be … a Family being cultural him when I was little – to movie sets game-changers. devoted to his family. Daddy genuinely In serious moments, their father would and TV studios – and I fell head-over- enjoyed the company of his children. He talk about what had driven him to build As her father did, A new generation of was big on hugging and kissing and he St. Jude. “Those stories always led back heels in love with what he was doing,” A passionate feminist, Thomas joined Marlo vowed to be said Thomas. women who dreamed of Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin could be very emotional,” Marlo said. to his own childhood, as the son of “a proud beggar being “somebody,” not just and Patricia Carbine in 1973 to found Lebanese immigrants in Toledo, Ohio “Sometimes he went overboard,” she – a place where no one ever went to a for the sickest of “As I got older, it really began to look “somebody’s wife.” the Ms. Foundation for Women with children.” like I would pursue the mission to “build women’s collective recalled. “When I was at USC and I got a doctor. His mother gave birth at HOME the same career. After a successful stage debut, Thomas power to realize a nation of justice for 3.8 average, he was so proud, he took my to all 10 of her babies with nothing but became That Girl (in an ABC all.” She attributes her feminism to her report card on The Tonight Show and her sister and a lot of hot water. sitcom of that name) to a new mother, who gave up her singing career boasted to Johnny Carson, 'This is my generation of women who to be a wife and mother. Thomas felt kid – 3.8!” I have to talk to her through “He witnessed firsthand the inequity dreamed of being “somebody,” her mother sacrificed too much. “She an interpreter!' And then there was the of poor healthcare and he never forgot not just “somebody’s wife.” It gave her whole life to us,” Thomas told time he told Carson (and the rest of it – the sight of little white coffins being told the story of Ann Marie, Barbara Walters in a 1992 Lifetime America) I had just gotten my first bra. carried to the cathedral at the end of the one of the first female TV interview. “I’m guilty about it. I feel we The audience howled. I was afraid to go street. Children in his neighborhood characters who was single, could have made it on half her life.” to school for a week. died of things like influenza and living alone and pursuing appendicitis. her career. Not one to rest on her laurels, at 79, “But what I remember most about Thomas designed and launched a my father was his soul-deep decency. “That’s what inspired him to create From the very first episode clothing line in 2017 that was sold on I constantly saw his compassion on a hospital for the sickest of children in 1966, the show tapped “Home Shopping Network.” With a nod display in so many settings. – where moms and dads and into what was just becoming to That Girl, she named her collection desperately ill kids would travel to the women’s movement. It That Woman. “I remember once riding in the car from around the world, and where led the way for other strong with him when I was around 7 or 8. no family would pay for their child’s female TV protagonists that Remembering Danny Thomas We passed a bunch of boys beating up treatment. followed. through Marlo’s eyes on another little boy. Dad slammed on Danny Thomas’s father came from the brakes and got out of the car. I saw “He never tired of raising After a five-year run, in its Dair al-Ahmar, near Baalbek and his him pull the boys apart and give them funds for the hospital. When final episode, the show’s mother from Bcharre. He was born in a talking to. Then we drove home the I became That Girl on sponsors thought Marlo’s Deerfield, Michigan, in 1912, and grew kid who had been beaten up. After we television, he called me character, Ann Marie, up in Toledo, Ohio, with eight brothers dropped him off, Dad drove in silence his ‘bonus kid,’ because should marry her and one sister. He dropped out of high for a while, and then said, almost to whenever he was unable long-time boyfriend school in his freshman year with a himself, ‘I hate a bully.’ to attend a St. Jude Donald and live dream to make it big in show business, event, he’d send me happily ever after. which he, of course, did in a very big “And it tells you everything you need to to take his place. Thomas resisted way. know about why he cared so much about At Phil’s and my and instead Ann sick children. I think he saw cancer in wedding (Thomas Marie took Donald to “A lot of people don’t know this about kids as a bully.” married a woman’s liberation my father, but for all his success and popular TV Marlo Thomas as her iconic TV St. Jude was a constant topic of talk show character Ann Marie in That Girl meeting, popular fame, he was still – at his core – a in the 1960s and working class guy who was incredibly conversation in the Thomas HOME. host Phil Danny Thomas and Marlo Thomas at the entrance of St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.

184 Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA 185 75 percent of our funds from the public. It now costs one billion dollars a year to run the hospital, so that's what we must Danny Thomas fulfills his father's wish: raise. And so like my dad, I’m part of a team that criss-crosses the country as "Don't forget the HOMEland." proud beggars on behalf of the sickest of children. Fundraising is the key to our Actresses Jennifer Aniston and Marlo Thomas. Thomas played Aniston's very survival.” mother on Friends. In 2014, St. Jude opened its Marlo Thomas Center for Global Education United States President Donahue), Dad clinked his glass and Barack Obama awarded and Collaboration, which provides a Marlo Thomas the said, ‘Today, I haven’t lost a daughter. Presidential Medal of I’ve gained a fundraiser.’ Everyone medical library and facilities to support Freedom in 2014. laughed. But he wasn’t kidding.” research. And it shares discoveries with the global research community to speed For many Lebanese-Americans, her The story behind St. Jude Children’s progress in the fight against childhood father Danny is the source of their Research Hospital cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Lebanese pride, she noted. “I was once You might say Marlo Thomas’ birth in West Hollywood years ago, dashing spurred the founding of St. Jude. When down Sunset Boulevard to pick up a she was born in Detroit, Danny and book I’d ordered, and I was running his wife Rose Marie couldn’t pay the Why do you have a late. One block before I reached the Photo from An-Nahar medical expenses. Until Danny could photograph of Danny bookstore, I passed a gift shop. As I At a reception in honor of Danny Thomas. From left to right: MP Emile Boustani, Danny Thomas, U.S. Ambassador HE Armin H. provide $75, mother and baby had to Thomas in your window? darted past it, I glanced quickly at the Meyer, Charles Helou (Lebanon's next president), and stay in the hospital, Marlo’s sister Terre window display. I stopped dead in my Lebanese ambassador to the United States Ibrahim Al-Andab. told The Michigan Catholic. Because I’m Lebanese! the tracks. There in the middle – among the shopkeeper proudly shouted. knick-knacks and curios – was a framed Excerpts from parents for the first time provided Throughout the week, papers continued Thomas stopped in a church to pray to photograph of my father. a dispatch the framework for many heartfelt to follow Danny’s activities with St. Jude, the patron of lost causes. “In On being Lebanese-American “We’re a passionate people,” Thomas from the U.S. demonstrations of Lebanese-American interest: his visits to the ailing Maronite his pocket, Danny had $7. In a leap of “I rushed into the store and yelled to the friendship. Patriarch Meouchi; to the American faith, he put it all in the poor box and said of the Lebanese, “whether it’s in our elderly man behind the counter, ‘Why Embassy in careers or our marriages or simply the University of Beirut; to the HOMEtown said to St. Jude, ‘I need that back 10 do you have a photograph of Danny Lebanon to The keynote for the visit was set by of his father at Deir al-Ahmar, near times tomorrow!’” way we face life with fire and strength Thomas in your window?’ and a deep love and loyalty to family. the U.S. State Thomas himself, when at a riotous Baalbek; to his mother’s birthplace at I think all in my family fit that model. Department, welcome at the airport, he emphasized Bcharre in the Qadisha Valley, where That was Sunday. Monday, Danny “‘Because I’m Lebanese!’ the shopkeeper May 8, 1962 his father’s wish shortly before his an estimated 12,000 people gathered received a call about a radio opportunity proudly shouted.” death: “My son, I have only one wish to to greet him; his call on President that paid $75 cash. He vowed he’d “It’s also frequently said the Lebanese The visit of Danny leave with you before I pass away – don’t Chehab; and large receptions, lunches establish a shrine to St. Jude and he have a fierce allegiance to each other. The Honorable Edward M. Gabriel, Thomas, American TV forget the HOMEland.” and dinners in his honor. Thomas was made good on it when he, with the St. Jude was founded and funded by president of the American Task Force for star, and his charming awarded the Lebanese “Order of the help of Dr. Lemuel Diggs and Anthony men and women of Lebanese descent, Lebanon and former U.S. ambassador wife Rose Marie, to Some 50 members of the Thomas clan Cedars.” Abraham, established St. Jude Hospital and that still holds today, as second to Morocco, recently told HOME that Lebanon as guests of the were among those to greet him at the in 1962. and third generations of the founding in the 1950s, when The Danny Thomas Lebanese Government from airport, amid much rivalry and pushing It was evident that the Lebanese are families continue to hold seats on the St. Show became the most popular thing on April 26 to May 3 was an to have the honor of welcoming him proud of this emigrant son who has Marlo, along with her sister Terre and Jude board. That bond – that powerful television, his generation of Lebanese- brother- and sisterhood among unqualified success. with hugs and kisses. There were at least made good and who has done good by brother Tony, has been leading the Americans “became Lebanese with nine fist fights among those contending such charitable undertakings as the St. fundraising efforts. Every November, Lebanese members – gives me such a that show.” Before that, they thought of During his brief visit to Lebanon, for a spot in front. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis to their “Thanks and Giving” campaign deep sense of pride and belonging.” themselves as Arab or Syrian. TV star Danny Thomas by his aid leukemia-stricken children. encourages holiday shoppers to ‘give warmth, cheerfulness and patience Among those on hand were Deputy thanks for the healthy children in their At the 2014 opening “It’s interesting – of all the wonderful of the Marlo Thomas throughout an exhausting round Emile Boustani, Deputy Habib Kairouz At the Information Minister’s luncheon, life, and give to those who are not,’” she Center for Global things written about my father – of activities won the hearts of the of Bcharre, the HOME village of Thomas again touched the heartstrings said. Because Danny Thomas wished Education and the most unexplored aspect of his life Collaboration. Lebanese, who in turn captured his. Danny’s mother, and representatives of of the Lebanese when he mentioned his that no child would be turned away if was that his parents were Lebanese The appearance of the 50-year-old the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy. father’s wish to be buried in Lebanon, a family couldn’t pay, fundraising has immigrants to America. Of course, his Thomas in the HOMEland of his but said he and his siblings preferred always been critical. fans knew he was Lebanese. But few him close so they could visit him. beyond his family and close friends “The average hospital only needs to know the depth of the meaning to my Marcel Khalife Remembers get 8% of its money from fundraising, father of his Lebanese heritage, the Marcel Khalife remembers a special moment in 1962. As a student in the Conservatoire Libanais, Khalife was invited to the Casino Du Liban where he played the oud to Marlo explained, "but because we’re a many ways it shaped his life, and how accompany Danny Thomas singing a mawal ataba (a traditional style of Lebanese music). non-profit — and families at St. Jude much his pride in that meant to the don’t pay for anything — we must raise American-Lebanese people.” https://forwomen.org/ https://www.stjude.org/about-st-jude/leadership/boards-of- directors-and-governors.html 186 Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA By Sandra Whitehead https://www.stjude.org/get-involved/other-ways/st-jude-thanks-and- Magazine - THE VOICE OF THE DIASPORA 187 giving.html