If you want a peek into Kathy Vining DeLone's heart, look no further than her refrigerator.
No, not inside it, but the outside, which is covered top to bottom with snapshots and newspaper clippings of family.
The same goes for much of her tastefully decorated home in west Little Rock. On display are formal and casual photos of her parents, Don and Peggy Vining; ski vacation shots with her husband, financial adviser Herb DeLone; and plenty of adorable photos of their daughter, Natalie (along with some of Natalie's artwork) at assorted ages.
Natalie is 20 now and a junior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she's studying for a career in nursing. Many Arkansans will remember little Natalie as the precocious, curly-headed blonde who made all those Coleman Dairy TV commercials with her mom.
DeLone was the "face" of Coleman Dairy for 15 years, taking over the advertising and public relations duties when Louise Luekin retired. But there have been plenty of other opportunities over the years to cross paths with the personable DeLone.
Born in Lake Village, DeLone, the second of Don and Peggy's five kids, lived in Eudora and several other south Arkansas towns before the family settled in Little Rock when she was 5. It was an idyllic childhood that seems to reflect the very definition of family values.
"It was really such a nurturing family," DeLone says. "My mother and dad were wonderful parents and they nurtured us not just with reading, but through activities as a family."
DeLone credits her mother, Arkansas poet laureate, as a guiding influence. "She nurtured me, and I nurtured everything else I came in contact with."
In DeLone's career, that nourishing spirit would begin with, and eventually return to, young children.
An education degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia led to several teaching jobs before DeLone switched to a different kind of nurturing as executive director of the American Cancer Society in Pulaski County.
That led to a public relations/sales training position with First South Savings and Loan "helping people meet their needs,"and finally to Coleman Dairy where, she says, "You can nurture 'til the cows come home."
Asked if she still has her TV pipes, DeLone laughed, leaned toward the recorder and intoned in her most mellifluous, "Coleman 'quality-check'd' Dairy."
She still has the pipes.
It was a busy, full life when she was younger, but suddenly Kathy looked up and found herself on the back side of 40 and single. "I thought my life was going nowhere," she admits.
That's when fate stepped in and a friend introduced her to Herb DeLone. Was it some romantic restaurant or exotic locale?
"I met him on the treadmill at the gym," DeLone says, laughing. "He's the calm to my craziness."
The couple married just shy of her 42nd birthday, and they welcomed Natalie a year later.
After Coleman Dairy (now a division of Hiland Dairy), DeLone worked as communication director for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education before becoming self-employed as a consultant. That's when yet another nurturing opportunity came calling.
In 2008, DeLone was hired as executive director of the Arkansas branch of Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national nonprofit that prepares young children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors, who "prescribe" books and encourage families to read aloud together.
Educator Peggy Sissel, founder and president of Words to Grow On, was the co-founder (along with Dr. Chad Rodgers) of Reach Out and Read Arkansas and credits DeLone with much of the organization's success.
"We could not have chosen a better person to take on the mission to expand the program across the state. Her PR skills ... and many, many contacts helped us develop a stronger presence in every corner of the state."
Sissel adds, "Under Kathy's guidance, ROR's presence across the state increased by 250 percent -- a record of growth that is unmatched by any other ROR coalition in the nation."
ROR is now in 40 clinics statewide and reaching more than 70,000 children.
DeLone resigned her position with ROR in December at a natural stopping place. She had completed, with the support of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, a strategic planning process for expanding Reach Out and Read in the state.
Now she again concentrates on contract PR work -- she took on marketing for the last Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame banquet -- a schedule that frees her to take care of her parents, who are in their late 80s. It's time for the "blessed and nurtured child" to nurture her parents.
"While we were sorry to see her retire," Sissel says, "the program is forever in her heart." DeLone agrees.
"That's what I miss the most," DeLone says about ROR. " When I was hired, I thought, 'You know, this is full circle. This pulls all my experiences together -- working with volunteers, working with boards, meeting people across the state.' I just get really emotional thinking about it."
DeLone might get a little extra emotional at ROR's annual fundraiser, Rx for Success, of which she is honorary chairman this year.
The festivities will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 8 at Next Level Events in the train station at 1400 W. Markham St. in Little Rock. Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door, and get you food and drink, the jazz stylings of Rodney Block and his ensemble, and a shot at silent auction items.
"I want to say it'll be food, fun and fellowship," DeLone says, smiling, "but that sounds too much like church."
What those in attendance will also witness is a room full of caring, nurturing folks reflecting the message on a little plaque DeLone keeps in her entry hall. It encompasses the way she has lived her life: "Don't just be a go-getter, be a go-giver."
For tickets, contact ROR executive director Molly Young at (501) 827-3112 (dial the entire number), or email info@reachoutandreadarkansas.org.
High Profile on 09/27/2015