Longview News-Journal from Longview, Texas • Page 123

Section ffijmguu Itorning Imirnal Sunday, October 3, 1982 Formal affair, 2-G Miss Gillie, 3-G Watercolor workshop, 6-G Diversions He's short on stature But tall on character, courage a body cast from the waist down for eight weeks. By May, he was playing Little League baseball and standing on the bases." "I told Dean it was a miracle," said Mrs. Earley. "He had to learn to walk all over again." i I 'Tr v. 1 rr I RUTH SHARP DOROTHY MALONE wMpillWPll 111 111 111111111111 11111 fc i I I Kp 1At flinmi, iiimmriinliM i li mi nun im mini i i i i iiulillj By JOYCE TURNER Staff Writer In many ways Eric Earley is a typical 13-year-old boy.

He likes baseball and football, especially the Dallas Cowboys. So far that's typical, right? In his blue jeans, tennis shoes and baseball shirt, he might be mistaken for any other sports-minded youth except for one fact Eric is a short-sta-tured person. But the kind of courage and determination that's required to be a short-statured person in a towering world is really not so typical. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes Eric's condition as form of disproportionate dwarfism in which the extremities are greatly reduced in length." "The name was really important at first," said his mother, Ava Ear-ley. "Eric was born on a Thursday, and by Saturday, our doctor said he was achondroplasia.

It's a genetic thing, just like brown eyes or blue eyes." After Eric's birth, the Earley's doctor referred them to a family in Kilgore for support, since they had already faced a similar circumstance. "It scares most people to death," Dean Earley said. "And it scared us too. I guess it's the unknown. There was a period of anxiety." "I think there was more anxiety when Eric was smaller," Mrs.

Ear-ley added. "Then you're asking, 'When is he going to walk? What will be his We didn't know what to judge him by." AT THIS POINT, the Earleys found great moral support from a group called Little People of America, founded by short-statured actor Billy Barty, who recently played a Nazi spy in the film "Under the Rainbow." "At the meetings, we listen to doctors explain various things, and it helps relieve anxiety. The group there gives you support, and as the children get older, they get to meet each other. That's1 when they realize they aren't the only one in the world like that." Although Eric is only 13 and may still grow several inches, he is already displaying the kind of courage he'll need to make it in a tall world. "Probably his major accomplishment happened two years ago," said Earley.

"Eric had both of his legs broken in January and was in Eric's broken legs were a part of orthopedic surgery to straighten his arched legs, which is one of the characteristics of dwarfism. "Eric was having hip and knee Mrs. Earley said, "so the surgery wasn't for cosmetic purposes. The wear and tear on joints can cause arthritis to set in." "Whenever I ran, I used.to trip over my feet," Eric remarked quietly. "The bone repair was phenomenal," Earley added.

"Only two doctors in the country would attempt it." YET ALL OF THESE serious problems never diminished Eric's love of baseball. "Eric was usually leadoff hitter in the games, and I felt there was a psychology there." Earley said. "They would put Eric up first, and then the largest player to confuse the pitcher and keep him confused for about three hitters." "They didn't know how to pitch to me," Eric explained and then grinned. "I was only put out six times in four years, and in the first two years, I didn't make an out." Recently, Eric was honored for his efforts in Little League. At the last game of the season, Eric was presented with a plaque which reads: "1982 honor award presented to Eric Earley in recognition of his determination and sportsmanship on the field, By the Pine Tree League Coaches, L.B.B.A." (Long-view Boys Baseball Association.) "We felt it was quite an honor coming from the coaches," said Earley.

Meanwhile, Eric has to cope with things tall people take for granted such as the height of water fountains and door handles, or how to buy clothes and shoes that fit, or how to sit in church pews or school desks without your legs going to sleep because they don't reach the floor. "You can get used to it," Eric concluded quietly have to be it all my life, so I might as well get used to it." Eric may be a short-statured person, but the longer you know him, the taller he gets. Special speakers scheduled for Republican Women's Club Ruth Sharp of Dallas, sister of Congressman Jim Collins, and Dorothy Malone, movie and television actress, will be special guest speakers for the Oct. 13 luncheon meeting of the Republican Women of Gregg County. The speakers are appearing on behalf of Collins who is a candidate for U.S.

Senate. Mrs. Sharp is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and her affiliations include being the only woman to serve on the board of the Republic Bank serving on the board of governors and board of trustees of SMU, elected to both the board of the Salvation Army and the board of Goodwill Industries. She has served as president of the Junior League of Dallas, Dallas Woman's Club, Visiting Nurse Association, Dallas Day Nursery Assn. and John J.

Pershing PTA. Miss Malone, a native of Dallas, studied at the American Theatre Wing and has performed in numerous movies with Fred McMurray, Rock Hudson, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Gary Grant, Henry Fonda and most of the other major motion picture stars. She won an Academy Award for her performance in "Written on the Wind" and was lead actress for five years in television's Peyton Place. The meeting is scheduled at 11:30 a.m. at Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House.

Cost of the tickets is $8 and limited reservations are available by calling 236-7148 or 663-2453. Hogg Foundation executive to address Junior League Bert Kruger Smith, executive associate of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, University of Texas, will address the Junior League of Longview Tuesday and Wednesday on the topic of "Aging Parents and the Dilemmas of Their Children." Mrs. Smith heads the Foundation's mental health education program and has written and edited some 120 publications. Nationally published books include Looking Forward, The Pursuit of Dignity, Aging in America and others. Nominated by Governor Clements as Texas' representative for the National Woman of Conscience Staff photo by Mike Gibton PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE Eric Earley takes his baseball seriously Award in 1982, she also received Second in a series Surrosatin; clinic established; the Moore-Bowman Award of Excellence by the Texas Council on Family Relations that same year.

Other awards have been presented byTheta Sigma Phi, Tpvas Assnriatinn nf RptarHpH Citi ains infertile couples9 approval zens and Texas Psychological Association. B.K. SMITH Mrs. Smith also chairs the Texas Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities Professional Advisory Committee and World Federation for Mental Health International Survey ambition on their side, attorneys for the anxious couple placed small, personal advertisements in vs fw -j ryrn newspapers throughout the country. The re sponse was overwhelming, yet not gratifying.

But the media was something else. j' mm -5JJjt" There was one story and then another. And tor has created an organization that lives on lave and lots of work. Still in its infancy, SPA has many more surrogates available than prospective parents; the ratio is approximately two to one. "I don't know whether our society allows women to be more free or if there are just that many women out there who would like to help somebody and enjoy having children.

Why, I've even had women in their 50s who want to be surrogates," Dr. Levin says, "And that blew me away." then newspapers all over the country were mar 1... veling at this doctor and this attorney and this couple who were looking for "another woman." Dr. Levin was on Phil Donahue. In People.

And SPA began to get calls from women all over the I A 1 VI aiTSLfr I country women wanting to be surrogates. Says Karen Zena, surrogate parenting coordi nator: "Many of the surrogate mothers are either related or close mends to someone who is infer r. tile and so they know what's it's like not to have children. Most of the women are from middle and upper middle income families and are very independent, although they are emotionally close to their husbands." AND THE COUPLES? Most are in their 30s and 40s, although Dr Levin has counseled couples in their 20s and 70s Most are not necessarily wealthy. And most are yearning for a child they so desperately want.

By JENNIFER TUCKER Staff Writer "Someone in your family can't get pregnant." He pauses after he says it and the phone crackles with static, dramatizing the doctor's statement with a man-made murmur. It is a statement most often greeted with an incredulous nod of the head and lowering of the eyes by those who, apparently, haven't had any problem "making babies." But take a closer look. Approximately 15 percent of the population is infertile, says Dr. Richard M. Levin, specialist in reproductive endocrinology and infertility.

That accounts for one-third the husbands who are sterile, one-1hird of the wives who are infertile, and the other third of husbands and wives who catmot have children because of innumerable reasons affecting their couplings "So," Dr. Levin adds, "we're talking about' virtually every family." He's talking about the people across the street and thr friends around the corner. He's talking, Dr. Levin is, about the neighbors who speak of children in glowing terms and yet their yard is obviously empty. IT IS THESE SORTS OF PEOPLE, these neighbors, who come to Louisville, and in the office of Surrogate Parenting Associates give birth to a better idea.

Surrogate parenting. The idea for the organization was conceived by Dr. Levin and brought to term by a host of supporters, researchers, attorneys and a couple of parents who interrupted the doctor's nap one Sunday afternoon. They knocked on Levin's door looking for help and what they received in return was a baby, carried by a woman whose name and face they did not know and probably will never learn. "I got involved in surrogate parenting not because it was a clever idea, but because it was a logical extension of donor insemination," says Dr.

Levin, who performs donor inseminations six days a week, every week in his private practice. (In donor insemination, a fertile woman is inseminated with donor sperm not available from her infertile husband.) SINCE THAT TIME IN 1979 WHEN Dr. Cevin admits he was more than a little hesitant "It Mook more guts than brains," he says the doc "The people I see want children very badly and they are going to great lengths to have them even though it's not the original method they would prefer," he says. They have spent much money and many years searching for a solution; one Brazilian couple had been trying 18 years, another Yugoslavian couple 19 years, in addition to spending thousands of dollars on investiga tion and treatment. Most also have tried adoption and were either weary of the wait or unsatisfied with the avail able children or "problem children" which Dr.

Levin says is a problem for the parents as well "Although I think it would be fabulous to give these children a home, they want to start a fami ly without problems. There are enough along the Artist to exhibit way. AND SO, THERE IS SPA, WHERE DR. Levin per Longview Civic Music Association will exhibit works of forms his medical miracle "tricks." He calls them tricks; they are, in fact, years of training Longview artist Lee Cunningham during its season open Yet the surrogate service is not a new one. In the classical Biblical reference, one can read of Abraham and Sarah.

The barren wife, Sarah, sent her husband to Hagar, her handmaiden, and it was Hagar who bore Ishmael. "And if you read on," says Dr. Levin, "you will see that God recognized the surrogate-born babe. He apparently approved of the idea by blessing the child." HOWEVER IN 1979, THE SEARCH for the modern mother to bear another man's child was not as easy as the Biblical tale. With only hope and er Oct.

12. The San Antonio Symphony will present the put into practice: an M.D. from the University of Louisville; an internship at Johns Hopkins; a residency at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard School first performance of the season at 8 p.m. in the T.G. Field Auditorium.

Tickets are available at the door at $8 for adults and $4 for students. See 'Surrogate 4-G.