The “Other” Diana Ross and the Power of Forgiveness

My column this week for The Huffington Post serves as tribute to a special friend of mine with a famous name and a powerful story. The “other” Diana Ross suffered an unspeakable tragedy, but she’s survived to demonstrate incredible strength and to fight for a critical cause — battling the scourge of domestic violence.

Read the excerpt below:

When my friend Terrell Ross first introduced me to his wife, I struggled to stifle a chuckle.

Diana… Ross? C’mon!

Her famous name seemed even more ironic as I came to know her.  Quite in contrast to her brash diva namesake, the “other” Diana Ross was soft-spoken, kind, and demure.

Only more recently did I learn that Diana’s outward modesty belied an extraordinary inner fortitude.

In October 2006, Terrell — her beloved husband of more than three decades — died after a much-too-quick battle with a particularly pernicious and virulent strain of cancer.

And then just three years later, on September 11, 2009, her youngest daughter Amanda, aged 28, was brutally murdered by her ex-fiancé, just a few hundred yards from where Diana was gardening at her home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Because the killer, Steve Nunn, was a well-known politician — a former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate, as well as the son of a former governor — a local media melée erupted.  Nunn was quickly apprehended, Amanda was buried among much pomp and circumstance, and politicians raced to introduce legislation to honor her memory.

Click here to read the full column.