WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A Florida heiress' long fight to honor disabled veterans is finally coming to fruition.
Eighty-one-year-old Palm Beach socialite Lois Pope, who inherited the National Enquirer fortune, has been at the center of the push for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial. It will be dedicated Sunday near the National Mall in Washington, with President Barack Obama expected to attend.
Pope says she was awakened to the struggle of disabled veterans when she was a Broadway singer in the 1960s and performed at a New York hospital, where Vietnam War veterans were recovering. She eventually lobbied for the memorial and gave $10 million to the cause.
Pope says she wants visitors to understand the human cost of war.
