By UOAA Advocacy Manager Jeanine Gleba
Pinky O’Neil attends the 2014 MSA Pageant in October in Atlantic City. The same year she had Ileostomy surgery in March.
“A boa can hide a belly bump, if you arrange it carefully!” Ms. Senior America (MSA) alum, Pinky O’Neil, explains to me. After the Advocacy Session at UOAA’s National Conference in August, I met this very spunky woman. She left my presentation motivated to share it with her Affiliated Support Group to get more involved with advocacy on the national level. Since conference I have learned more about the essence of this “great advocate of positivity”, who recently celebrated her 85th birthday!
Pinky has had her ileostomy since 2014. When she started her ostomy journey at the age of 79, she was not well-informed. Supplies and advice were not readily available to her. To get her questions answered and get back to living her very busy full life she joined an ostomy support group, attended the past three UOAA national conferences, reads the e-newsletter and Phoenix magazine, and asks questions of suppliers.
Pinky teaching her 85th Big Birthday Bash attendees “I Feel Lucky” Line dance.
As a woman who has experienced many devastating set-backs in life, she learned early how to get her groove back on. Eventually after her long surgery recovery, Pinky resumed activities such as hosting monthly Singles Club Block parties and directing The Villages Singles Club Got Talent performing group, and her favorite physical activity – dancing. Pinky has been dancing for decades even doing One Woman Shows “Skeletons in your Closet” and “Mama was a Swinger” and opening her own business “Dancing Around with Pinky O’Neil”. All of this dancing brought her to the national stage.
Pinky O’Neil, Honorary Senior America & Esmeralda Ybarra Hetrick, Ms. Senior America 2019 from Pennsylvania, Pinky’s home State at the 2019 MSA pageant at the Resorts Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.
As a Ms. Senior America (MSA), Pinky, has been strutting her stuff for years on the pageant circuit! She was crowned Ms. Virginia Senior America (MVSA) title in 1996. She has been involved with MSA ever since including being the MVSA State Director for ten years and then the MSA Public Relations Director for another ten years. She was awarded the Honorary Senior America title in 2006. The Ms. Senior America Pageant is “the world’s first and foremost pageant to emphasize and give honor to women who have reached the Age of Elegance,” according to the Senior America Mission Statement.
Pinky shared with me, “Presently, I mentor, recruit, present orientations, visit various MSA Pageants as well as attend the yearly national pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. We perform there with the Queens Choir. I am a member of the National Senior Alumni Association (NSAA). We solo at the pageant Alumni Show as well as direct & host MSA Showcases at Veterans Hospitals & Retirement facilities in our home states around the USA and on cruise ships to make others feel happy and youthful!” In addition, “As PR Director, I initiated & hosted Two Showcases at The White House in 2000 and organized a MSA entourage to St. Thomas in 2011. There we performed several MSA Showcases and collaborated with the St. Thomas Tourism Department to provide assistance for the first Ms. Virgin Island’s Senior America to tour the Mainland pageants.”
Pinky is an advocate for ostomates, because it is her strong desire to be a role model to others and spread the word that ostomies are lifesavers and that you should not allow your ostomy to hide you. From traveling the world to walking the stage runway, this is one woman who does not let her ostomy stop her!
