Leeza's Blog - What's On My Mind

My Most Valuable Life Lessons – Leeza’s Interview for ThirdAge.com

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:10:42 +0000

My Most Valuable Lessons
Midlife Lessons From Leeza Gibbons

http://www.thirdage.com/celebrities/midlife-lessons-from-leeza-gibbons
Posted by Jane Farrell on May 2, 2012 10:40 PM

Just hearing what Leeza Gibbons does for a living can be a bit daunting.

The TV journalist, who turned 55 last month, manages to host two television shows (“America Now” and “My Generation”) while supervising her own cosmetics line and running a nonprofit foundation designed to help caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients.

When asked how she does it, Gibbons just laughs and says, “I’m a woman.” It’s only honest to say that she’s got exceptional drive, too, but her answer indicates how deeply she believes in women and the unique qualities that can help them succeed.

Gibbons first got a glimpse of this female power when she was asked to report on a convention held by cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash. When she got the assignment, Gibbons says, she wasn’t that interested in hearing what Ash had to say to her legions of saleswomen. But within minutes of walking into the meeting, she felt differently. “Women were transformed by this,” Gibbons says. “They were a community. They were engaged in a transactional enterprise.” And Ash, Gibbons says, taught her saleswomen to succeed in that enterprise by using “our natural abilities as women – the ability to communicate, to nurture, to applaud others.”

In fact, Gibbons says, she was so impressed that she had occasional thoughts of being a Mary Kay salesperson herself. She’s used the skills she learned about that day to communicate with the audience for her two shows, “America Now” and “My Generation,” both of which emphasize stories aimed at Boomers. (And her love of cosmetics led to her creation of her Home Shopping Network-based beauty line.)

Leeza’s most important contribution, though, may be personal rather than professional: her foundation, Leeza’s Place (www.leezasplace.org.), which provides crucial, free support services for caregivers who are looking after a loved one with any chronic or progressive illness. Gibbons began the effort in 2002 after her mother, Gloria Jean, died of Alzheimer’s. Based on the toll caregiving took on her and her family, Gibbons saw how much help caregivers need. Her own father, Carlos, “learned very quickly how much he needed support or he would go under,” she says. Today, the foundation operates centers across the country, and drew 25,000 visitors last year.

As she’s moved through the first half of her fifties, Gibbons says, she’s come to learn a few valuable life lessons:

“It’s better to drop the dread factor. This is the best time of our lives.”

“I’ve learned to look in the mirror and forgive myself and forgive others. I wish I got that memo years ago.”

“I’m imperfect.”

“We all have scripts about how we could live happily ever after. Don’t fixate on not getting exactly the life you ordered.”

Gibbons, the mother of three grown children, has another point to make: about marrying a younger man. In 2011, she married California educator Steven Fenton, who’s thirteen years her junior. “I’m so glad to be married to my best friend!” she said on her Facebook page. When she got married, Gibbons told an interviewer that she was getting in touch with her “inner cougar.”

But today, she says, “I don’t know if I’d use that term. It’s so five minutes ago, don’t you think?”

Yes, it is—and maybe that’s another life lesson.

Watch Leeza’s Recent Media Interviews on Caregiving

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:15:33 +0000

Thank you to Loren Halifax and the team at WDAF Fox4 in Kansas City, MO for helping me spread the word about caregiver support and my foundation’s work with Brookdale Senior Living. By the way, our show America Now airs on this station daily at 11 am!

http://fox4kc.com/2012/05/02/leeza-gibbons-talks-about-caregivers/

And here’s my interview with Carolyn Long from Channel 5, KCTV in Kansas City about the Caregiver Conference given by Brookdale Senior Living where I delivered the keynote. I love that she has a secret crush on my America Now co-anchor, Bill Rancic!

http://www.kctv5.com/video?clipId=7142194&autostart=true

Dean Banowetz Honored with Award by Beauty Bus Foundation

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:47:54 +0000

Leeza with Dean Banowetz

I LOVE the Beauty Bus Foundation! This is one of the most heartfelt nonprofits we have ever worked with. They offer free grooming services for people who are chronically or terminally ill and their caregivers.

At Leeza’s Place, we have seen firsthand what a difference it makes to lovingly extend dignity and humanity during vulnerable times. The Beauty Bus Foundation has supported many of our local events at our two Leeza’s Place locations in Los Angeles.

I’m so happy that they have honored my friend, the Hollywood Hair Guy, Dean Banowetz, with their Lifetime Achievement Award. No one deserves it more! Dean, you always inspire me to be better and give more.

And thank you to the Beauty Bus Foundation for your loving and powerful work in the community.

~ Leeza Gibbons and your friends at Leeza’s Place

Read more about Dean here - http://www.hollywoodhairguy.com/home.asp

and The Beauty Bus Foundation and their Beauty Drive event here – http://www.beautybus.org/beauty-drive/

Pops’ Poetry: Insights and Wisdom from Carlos W. Gibbons, Sr.

admin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:54:38 +0000

My Dad is one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever known. He sees life as one big stage and he is never reluctant to find his place in the spotlight. Growing up, I saw him through my little girl eyes, and I thought he had the most exciting life – filled with passion and purpose. I still do. He was trained as an educator (he has his doctorate in Educational Psychology) and worked as a teacher, principal, superintendent and state leader in education, ultimately running for public office (including Governor) and showing his three children what it really meant to show up for your life; to strive for ways to be of service and make a difference.

It wasn’t until my mother got sick with Alzheimer’s disease that I saw what “showing up” really meant. He emerged from our family’s new reality as a dedicated caregiver; feeding mom, singing to her, holding her hand and arriving at their 50th wedding anniversary with a corsage to pin on the woman he married as a 17 year old girl. She was in a nursing home and already deep behind the veil of memory loss, but when we played the Tennessee Waltz, Daddy danced with the woman he loved as though they were going to sneak off for a romantic night to celebrate 5 decades.

We never got my mother back, but because of her disease, we got to see my father’s real strength for the first time. Not the kind of power it takes to lead an organization or speak in front of thousands; not the kind of strength it takes to manage businesses and create a career of public service – but real strength of spirit. The kind it took for him to honor his life and his wife through the darkest days our family has known.

If Mom were alive today, she would roll her eyes in mock exasperation at the very idea that I am posting Daddy’s poems on my website. Dad has always been a local eccentric and his penchant for standing up and reading poetry at a moment’s notice was not something Mom loved! She was not a big fan of his joke-telling either, but it is one of the things I cherish most about Dad. He would gear up for an elaborate story and Mom would just leave the room and utter, “Don’t encourage him, Leeza”! Now, even my brother Carlos (Dad’s namesake) and my sister Cammy are reluctant fans of Dad’s ramblings.

So, with apologies to Mom, I am excited to offer “Pops Poetry”. I should warn you, this is an unending font of material ranging from memories ‘and magic, to character and sin. Dad never plans a poem. He writes them out long-hand and rarely even scratches out a word. Incredible, really. What you see if what you get. If they are typed, it was my sister Cammy, who was drafted into service.

If you write, nothing would thrill Daddy more than to share your poetic ponderings. For the rest of us – read through and see if you don’t just find something unexpected, unusual, unique or different in some of these poems. Classic Pops!

Video Intro from Carlos W. Gibbons, Sr.

Photos of Leeza, Carlos and Jean Gibbons

List of Poems by Carlos W. Gibbons, Sr.

A Beautiful Life

A Cold Beer

A Fly on the Wall

A Free Spirit

A Friend

A Kiss to Build a Dream On

A Lesson from a Flower

A Time for Everything

Adventure and Thrills

All in the Life of a Country Bumpkin

Alone

America’s Favorite Game

An Illusion

Another Chance

Anticipation

Anxiety vs. Fear

Autumn

Born to Lose

Comparison

Competition

Compromise

Days of Wine and Roses

Delusion

Delusion or Reality

Division

Excellence

Father’s Day

Graduation

Have I Told You Lately

Hypocracy

I Wonder

In a Wink

Indecision

Independence Day

Inspiration

Intolerant Determination

It’s All in the Game

Lakes and Fishing

Let Me be a Friend

Liberty

My Day in the Sun

My Lazy Day

My Little Girl

My Paper Doll

My Utopian Dream

Never Quit

Night and Day

Opportunity

Political Gridlock

Pride

Reciprocity

Remembering 9/11

Riding into the Sunset

Should I Tell a Lie

Smoke That Cigarette

Spring

Summer on the Beach

Thanksgiving – Let Us Be Thankful

The Clown

The Cradle to the Grave

The Family Reunion

The Golden Anniversary Thief

The Honey Bee

The Ideal Woman

The Morning After

The Old Swimming Hole

The River

The Shadow of Your Smile

The Tax Man Cometh

The Teenage Years

The Thought of You

The Wheel

This Too Shall Pass

To Be or Not to Be

Together

Tomorrow

What If

What is Small

Yesterday

Leeza Gibbons Finds a New Mission After her Mother’s Battle with Alzheimer’s

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:37:35 +0000

Special thanks to American Profile for the lovely article they recently featured on their website. Thanks for letting me share a little bit of my story!

Leeza Gibbons Finds a New Mission After her Mother’s Battle with Alzheimer’s

by M.B. Roberts

February 21, 2012

Leeza Gibbons, the effervescent TV personality known for hosting Entertainment Tonight, Extra and Leeza, has always moved at full speed. Even when taking a break from Hollywood to visit her parents at their home near where she grew up in Irmo, S.C., it was tough for her to hit the brakes.

“My mom finally taught me to slow down,” says Gibbons, 54, whose mother, Jean Gibbons, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1999. “Even when I couldn’t communicate with her and all I could do was brush her hair, hold her hand or play her favoritesong, I learned that my hyperactivity wasn’t meaningful. The only thing that mattered was to slow down, take a deep breath, and be present.”

Jean, who died in 2008 at age 72, and Leeza’s father, Carlos, now 82, were always an inspiration to Leeza, brother Carlos Jr. (Carl), now 57, and sister Cammy, 47. Carlos Sr., an elementary school principal and later school superintendent, ran for governor of South Carolina in the mid-1970s.

“I went out campaigning for my dad on a little whistle-stop tour when I was 15,” Gibbons says. “It was electrifying. Not only was he affecting people’s lives, he was really happy doing it. He definitely influenced me to follow my passions.”

And Jean—or “Mama G,” as Leeza’s friends called her—was the epitome of the gracious hostess, selfless in her service to others.

“She always had the door open,” Gibbons says. “And the coffee was always on.”

‘Something isn’t right’
In the late 1990s, the Gibbons family noticed that Jean, whom Leeza describes as a “sassy, funny, strong Southern woman,” was becoming forgetful. She would pay the same bill three times or let loose an occasional profanity, something she’d never done before. At first, the family tried to justify the behavior. “Jean’s probably been drinking a little too much,” someone would say. Or, “She’s just getting older.”

But Jean, whose own mother had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, knew better.

“She was the one who said, ‘Something isn’t right,’” Gibbons says. “I was in such denial. Mom was the one who forced us to get our heads out of the sand.”

Jean had only one request.

“Go tell the story,” she told her entertainment-journalist daughter. “And make it count.”

A focus on caregivers
And that’s exactly what Leeza did, eventually chronicling the family’s ordeal in her 2009 book, Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss.

In 2002, Gibbons created the Miami, Fla.-based Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation and its signature program, Leeza’s Place, with two locations near her Los Angeles home, plus one in Florida and one in Illinois, that provide resources for people caring for someone seriously ill.

In 2003, Gibbons left her post at TV’s Extra to run the foundation.

“If Leeza is in a position to make a difference or give something back, she does it,” says her sister-in-law, Anne Marie Gibbons, 53, in Columbia, S.C. “Everything she’s involved in, she truly cares about. Her full energy goes into it.”

Besides the hands-on participation of its namesake, Leeza’s Place is unique for its emphasis on the caregiver, not the person with the illness.

“That’s our focus, because if you nourish the caregiver with mind, body, soul and spirit, you’ll get better outcomes for the care receiver,” Gibbons says.

Juggling work and family
Besides her role as caregiver advocate, Gibbons maintains an up-tempo schedule promoting her Sheer Cover makeup line and hosting the PBS lifestyle seriesMy Generation, the radio program Hollywood Confidential, and America Now, a nightly syndicated TV news magazine co-hosted by Bill Rancic, the 2004 winner of the TV reality show The Apprentice.

“We give a lot of information very quickly on a wide variety of topics, then provide viewers with the next step,” she says of America Now. “I love it because we actually show what you can do about a problem like bullying or identity fraud.”

Of all her endeavors, from interviewing movie stars (easy, she says) to learning moves for the 2007 season of Dancing with the Stars (much more challenging!), family remains her priority.

“She is truly doing 100 things a day, and yet everybody gets the attention they deserve,” says Holly Tyrer, 34, Gibbons’ longtime friend and Los Angeles-based assistant. “Her kids are first. It’s family, then work.”

In April of last year, Gibbons expanded her family when she married Steven Fenton, 41, a Los Angeles talent manager whom she met on a blind date nearly four years ago.

“I am in the most supportive marriage and relationship, and that makes all the difference,” says Gibbons, who was married three times previously. “I’m probably authentically myself for the first time. I’m always telling my friends, ‘Don’t give up!’”

The only wedding guests were Gibbons’ three children. In fact, beforehand, daughter Lexi, 22, an aspiring dancer, and son Troy, 19, a film student, became ordained ministers online so they could perform the ceremony. Nathan, 14, who Gibbons says has been a comedian from before he could talk, presided over the giving of the rings.

“I’ve never been an empty, unhappy person—there was nothing broken,” she says. “But now it’s just higher heights. It’s wonderful.”

And, as much as Gibbons misses her mother, she continues to be inspired by her request to “tell the story” of her Alzheimer’s, one that resulted in a mission to help others find hope in the midst of heartbreak.

“It’s been an unbelievable opportunity,” she says, “and the most enriching experience of my life.”