Posted on 11/29/2017 9:56:20 AM PST by Kaslin
Debbie White Dove Porreco, at home in Palm Beach, with Max and Mia. Photo by Paul Noble
Editor’s note: This story originally ran in 2013
You wouldn’t expect to encounter Pocahontas in Palm Beach, but you have if you’ve met Debbie “White Dove” Porreco, a Native-American princess after whom Pocahontas is often modeled in the media.
“Sometimes when I’m dining at Mar-a-Lago, I think to myself, ‘You’ve come a long way from that Indian reservation you started in,” she said. “Pocahontas had dreams and went to England. My dreams brought me to Palm Beach.”
That dream would have seemed far away when Debbie White Dove Custalow was the young daughter of the chief of the Mattaponi tribe. She was the youngest of nine children, attending a two-room schoolhouse on the reservation.
Her family was close but poor. Her father woke up at 3 a.m. to haul lumber, and finished at 8 each night. She was in the second grade before she had an indoor bathroom. Her family couldn’t afford a saddle for her beloved horse, so she learned bareback riding. “I was taught Native American dancing for our powwows as soon as I could walk, so I often performed the Princess dance,” she said.
They also had a trading post, which sold trinkets to tourists, and she gave tours and taught tourists about their tribe.
Life was quite different after she graduated Chowan College. She spent a decade as a flight attendant on Piedmont Airlines. She was often thought to be from India, rather than a Native American, after she dyed her hair from black to golden brown, as it remains today.
But Debbie is descended from Pocahontas, and grew up on the same grounds. If you have an image of Pocahontas, it may be Debbie you’re visualizing. Because Debbie played the original Indian princess in commercials, parades, pageants, parties, re-enactments and documentaries, two produced by Ted Turner. Indeed, when Disney realized that Pocahontas probably looked like Debbie (Pocahontas should have been so lucky!), she became the model for the famous animated movie.
After a rocky first marriage, she met Lou Porreco at a dinner party and fell in love. At their wedding, Debbie’s first cousin, Wayne Newton — who is of Native American descent — was best man. He even surprised them by picking up the tab.
Life was quite different after she graduated Chowan College. She spent a decade as a flight attendant on Piedmont Airlines. She was often thought to be from India, rather than a Native American, after she dyed her hair from black to golden brown, as it remains today.
But Debbie is descended from Pocahontas, and grew up on the same grounds. If you have an image of Pocahontas, it may be Debbie you’re visualizing. Because Debbie played the original Indian princess in commercials, parades, pageants, parties, re-enactments and documentaries, two produced by Ted Turner. Indeed, when Disney realized that Pocahontas probably looked like Debbie (Pocahontas should have been so lucky!), she became the model for the famous animated movie.
After a rocky first marriage, she met Lou Porreco at a dinner party and fell in love. At their wedding, Debbie’s first cousin, Wayne Newton — who is of Native American descent — was best man. He even surprised them by picking up the tab.
She’s a big supporter of President Trump I believe.
Dachshunds!!!
Yes she is and she said her ancestor Pocahontas would too be a supporter of President Trump
correct.
Woodrow Wilson’s second wife was also a descendant.
I’m a Pocahontas descendent
She was 59 in that photo
Damn nice looking
Rich too
Draped in Hermes
Dead hubby was major car dealer up north
And what s silly oatmeal recipe
My children’s great great grandmother was a slave of the Cherokee. We used to think she had Cherokee blood, but now we don’t know.
She looks like Paula Abdul.......hot!
Wayne Newton is more Native American than Lieawatha!
Now what would a Cherokee be wanting to do with something Mexican?
Personally, I did have a twin
Interesting point. It’s often alleged that enslavement was a white vice, but it knew no one race as masters.
And here I am only an Injuneer.
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