Seen & Heard: Judy G. Martin

Judy Martin, a member of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), made her Seen & Heard profile debut in the November/December 2011 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine, which just arrived in member mailboxes. Seen & Heard is a new column in our magazine and we had 48 members get enthusiastically involved in our first outreach effort! We’ll be publishing one or two profiles (as space allows) in each issue of the bimonthly magazine. The first two members profiled were Danielle Nicosia and John Kinstler, who appeared in the the September/October 2011 issue. You can read more about their debut on my blog here.

I especially enjoyed Judy’s responses to my questionnaire—she’s very funny, interesting and outgoing and her answers definitely reflect that fact. She and I share an affinity for true crime books and tv shows and I laughed out loud when I read her long- and short-term goals. I photographed her at HLAA’s annual convention this past June, which was held in Washington, D.C.

Judy G. Martin / Jacksonville, FL / born July 15 in Columbus, NE

MY HEARING LOSS…began about age seven or eight. I got my first hearing aid at age 17 and had two hearing aids at age 42. I received my cochlear implant in January 2006 and I still wear one hearing aid.

SAGE ADVICE…Find a good audiologist. Make sure your hearing aid has a t-coil. Join or start a local HLAA chapter.

WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I WANTED TO BE A… nurse or a teacher.

THE BEST GIFT I EVER RECEIVED WAS…a blue and white two-wheeler Schwinn when I was seven.

THE FIRST THING I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY WAS… a 1965 Black Mustang with red leather interior.

THE HARDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE WAS… to quit smoking cold turkey in 1981. I had a two-pack-a-day habit. There is a story behind why I quit (not health).

I LOVE THE SOUND OF… symphony music, big band, golden oldies, birds (all kinds), wind blowing through trees, and a church choir.

IN MY SPARE TIME I… advocate for people with hearing loss and volunteer at church as acolyte, chalice minister, lector, and usher.

I MISS… New York, but not during the winter!

HAPPINESS IS… partying with my husband, family and friends.

HOBBIES? Genealogy. I have 46 first cousins and traced my German side back to the 1600s, but my Polish side eludes me and that goes back to only 1837. In 2002 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and at the same time found information that through one of my lines I was descended from French Huguenots through the Danish Huguenots. My love of genealogy and my excitement over this latest finding literally drove the fear of cancer from my heart and mind.

CITY, COUNTRY, BEACH OR MOUNTAINS? City and country. I was born on a farm, lived in the suburbs and as a young chick chose to move to Manhattan. Except for the fact that I met my first husband there, I loved every square inch of that beautiful city, from Battery Park on the tip of the island to the uppermost Inwood section, from the Hudson to the East Rivers. Although I’ve been a Florida resident for six years, I am a proud almost-lifelong New Yorker! You can take the girl out of New York but you can’t take New York out of the girl.

MY FAVORITE PLACE TO BE… is at home where I can putter.

I HAVE A WEAKNESS FOR… food.

I COLLECT: nativities and have 57 sets as of Christmas 2010. They get put up every other year because every other year we travel to New York to spend with family. During the intervening years, we travel north at Thanksgiving.

PLACES I’VE CALLED HOME… Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida

WORKING NINE TO FIVE… advertising, publishing, newspaper, church

MUSIC TO MY EARS… John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” (Tom—my husband—and my song), “Ave Maria,” “Adagio for Strings,” Mario Lanza’s “All the Things You Are,” Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”

LITERARY FAVES… Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Ann Rule’s book on Ted Bundy—The Stranger Beside Me, Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon, and Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s Understood Betsy

FAVORITE MOVIES: Them, Miracle of the Bells, Night of the Living Dead, Affair to Remember, Imitation of Life

THE LAST BOOK I READ WAS… Ann Rule’s In The Still of the Night.

MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME… how to cook and how to iron men’s pants.

MY FATHER TAUGHT ME… that men can be moral and trustworthy.

GET ANYTHING GOOD IN THE MAIL LATELY? Yes—My N5 Processor!

WHAT’S THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD? Facebook!

I HAVE A FEAR OF… being stabbed to death. I read too many true crime books and watch too many true crime shows on TV.

EARLY BIRD OR NIGHT OWL? Whoooooo? Night Owl, definitely.

SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR HOME THAT YOU ARE SURE MOST PEOPLE DON’T… Many, many books and three-ring binders filled with genealogy history and printouts of ancestors

MY FAVORITE POSSESSIONS ARE… my cochlear implant processors, computers, genealogy printouts and records, and finally—42 photo albums with pictures pasted in the old-fashioned way, 18,500 photos on my computer, and one box of photos and negatives to be sorted before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

EVER MEET ANYONE FAMOUS? Red Skelton, Rex Harrison, Sammy Davis, Jr., Ted Steele (bandleader from the 40s) Fred Astaire. I went around the revolving door twice with Willie Nelson at the old El Morocco.

MY LONG-TERM GOAL… is to live long-term.

MY SHORT-TERM GOAL… includes remembering what my long-term goal is.

PET PEEVE… drivers who talk or text on their cell phone while driving and weaving or driving slowly in the left lane.

RIGHT NOW I AM CRAVING… Boars Head Blazing Buffalo Chicken on white bread with fresh tomato and mayo.

IF I RULED THE WORLD… there would be no war or poverty.

MY GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IS… my happy 33-year marriage, my two children and through them my three grandchildren.

I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED… as a person who tried to live the best way she could—not always successfully—but with the best of intentions.

“Every issue of Hearing Loss Magazine is filled from front to back with fascinating, useful, thought-provoking, humorous, and educational articles. As a newsletter editor, I’ve done lots of interviewing and am incessantly interested (some say nosy) in the lives of others. Folks will often say they are not newsworthy, but I always respond that every life has a story. I always appreciate the absolute professionalism—the layout, the photography, the planning, the editing—of this publication. I’m proud to pass it on.” —Judy Martin

Step away from the flowers…

So I don’t completely overload my viewers with too many green things (what did you expect? I’m a gardener and we’re knee deep into the growing season right now!), I’ve prepared a few more images from the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) “Inside Politics 2008” fundraiser I attended a few weeks ago at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (I do this to remind you all that I can and do shoot other subjects!)

To refresh your memory (in case you don’t recognize these prominent folks), the panel included journalist David Gregory (NBC News’ Chief White House Correspondent and host of MSNBC’s Race for the White House), David Brooks (author and columnist with The New York Times), Gwen Ifill (moderator and managing editor of Washington Week in Review , and senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS), and author and anchorman Bob Schieffer (CBS Chief Washington Correspondent and anchor and moderator of Face the Nation).

For more information about the panelists:

https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/bladder-cancer-and-inside-politics-2008/

For more information about BCAN and bladder cancer, visit www.bcan.org.

Contrary to recent postings, I do find other subjects to shoot when I’m not being lured into the world of flowers!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bladder Cancer and “Inside Politics 2008”

Last night Michael and I attended a fundraiser for the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN), a client of mine. BCAN will soon celebrate its third year anniversary. The reception was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with an “Inside Politics 2008” panel discussion afterwards. I’ve been invited to past events but this was the first time I was able to attend. I offered my services as her complimentary photographer for the evening.

Diane and John Quale founded the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) three years ago, after discovering that there was little knowledge among the general public and general medical community about the causes, symptoms and treatment of bladder cancer. It is the 5th most commonly-diagnosed cancer in the U.S., but the lack of public recognition of the disease results in less funds allocated by the federal government to research devoted to the diagnosis, treatment and cure. To learn more about BCAN, visit their website at www.bcan.org

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Left to right:

Journalist David Gregory is currently the NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, occasional guest host on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and Meet the Press, substitute co-anchor of Weekend Today, occasional fill-in for Matt Lauer on The Today Show, occasional fill-in for NBC News Weekend Nightly News, and now host of his own show, Race for the White House, on MSNBC.

Columnist David Brooks writes a column on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and currently a commentator on Newshour with Jim Lehrer. He is also a frequent analyst on NPR’s All Things Considered and the Diane Rehm Show. His articles have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and many others. He is the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense, both published by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Brooks worked for nine years at The Wall Street Journal.

Journalist Gwen Ifill is moderator and managing editor of the PBS program, Washington Week in Review, and is also senior correspondent with the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In 2004, she moderated the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. She has worked for the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Evening Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC.

Diane Zipursky Quale is co-founder and Director/President of BCAN. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor from the National Law Center, George Washington University. She was in private law practice until 1996 when she became Washington Counsel for the National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (NBC), and was later promoted to Vice President, Washington Law and Policy for NBC. Her husband and BCAN co-founder, John Quale, holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from Harvard University. He is a partner with Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and heads the firm’s communications practice. John is a bladder cancer survivor.

Journalist Bob Schieffer is anchor of The CBS Evening News, and has been the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” since 1991. In 2004, he was the moderator of the third presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. Bob has won six Emmy awards, and has written two books about his journalism career: Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, and This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV. He was a regular guest on the Don Imus morning radio show. Bob is a bladder cancer survivor.