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Parade rains on an old story

Dorothy Ridgway was nine in 1960 when wire services reported that she was dying of a rare bone disease and that her only wish was for Christmas cards: a kindly world sent 600,000 of them within weeks. This year Parade, the ubiquitous (circ. 22 million) Sunday newspaper supplement, decided to visit Dorothy, now 31 and alive after all. The portrait in the Dec. 19 issue was vivid down to the last teardrop: Freelance Writer Dotson Rader found Dorothy, stunted and virtually housebound, living with her parents in Roanoke, Va., sustained by memories, dreams and a disability check of $221 a month. Once again America responded. Parade Managing Editor Larry Smith announced last week that the magazine was forwarding truckloads of mail to Dorothy. She also received cash, offers of color televisions, furniture and a central heating system. Exulted Smith: "Dorothy's story has tugged at the heartstrings of America." But the Ridgways were embarrassed; they pointed out that Parade had misrepresented their neighborhood as Roanoke's poorest, and insisted that their home was not, as Parade depicted it, "bleak." Further, Dorothy's check is augmented by Medicaid, and her parents receive public assistance totaling about $500 more a month; gifts may imperil the family's eligibility for relief. Said Mary Ridgway: "Others are worse off than us. I do not want people to think Dorothy was begging." Parade Editor Walter Anderson defended the story as a "powerfully written work that proved itself by the response." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.