Saying bye to Tallie

Even though Tallie Anderson wasn’t physically at the memorial held for her Thursday evening inside Will Rogers Elementary’s auditorium, her spirit was definitely in the building as family, friends, classmates and faculty bid an emotional farewell to the 11-year-old Shawnee girl who shed new light on the nationwide shortage of bone marrow donors for American Indians.
Roger Anderson, Tallie’s father, told the packed auditorium that his oldest child “loved school more than anything,” and also expressed his gratitude to the Will Rogers staff, as well as all of those who helped the Anderson family during the past two years.
“When we first came in and told Mr. Wilson, the principal, about Tallie’s condition his first comments were ‘what can we do, what do you need from us’” Anderson said. “We never, not once, heard the word ‘can’t’ from them.”
Anderson, whose remarks at the service brought nearly the entire building to tears, said the school nurse and teachers all had plans in place if Tallie’s condition caused her to become ill at school.
“It humbles you,” Anderson said. “It shows how much people loved Tallie at the school.”
Anderson said he was proud of his daughter’s bravery throughout her two-year battle with aplastic anemia, especially the courage Tallie showed during the final months of her life.
“She never asked ‘why me?’ She never made an excuse,” Anderson said. “Instead, she made it an excuse to do something.”
Tallie did something, more than most 11-year-olds would even dare to consider undertaking.
Instead of calmly accepting the fact that only one percent of the 7 million bone marrow donors were American Indians, Tallie started a movement. Along with her family, she embarked on a tour of the state with stops in Talihina, McAlester, Broken Bow, Idabel, Hugo, Durant and even the state capital. Just to name a few. She was looking for American Indian bone marrow donors, her best chance at receiving a suitable match for a stem-cell transplant.
Stacy McLeod, national marrow donor program coordinator for Oklahoma, said Tallie moved mountains in the final months of her life.
“From August 2008 until October, just a couple of months, we added around 250 new donors to the registry. It was phenomenal,” McLeod said. “And most of that was because of Tallie.”
McLeod said Tallie’s tenacity, and her affiliation with the Choctaw Nation, helped her organization penetrate and successfully develop ties with American Indian community in Oklahoma. And the roughly 250 new donors added as a result of Tallie’s crusade.
“The most of any state,” McLeod said. “It’s remarkable.”
And Tallie’s legacy will live on.
Anderson said his son, Christian, recently told him he doesn’t plan to stop raising awareness even though his sister doesn’t need bone marrow.
“Tallie was Christian’s best friend, they couldn’t do one without the other,” Anderson said. “One day, he just came out and said, ‘we’re going to continue her work.’ I just said O.K., I guess we are.”
Before she died from complications following a stem-cell transplant, Tallie told him she’d gladly pass on if “they can learn something from me and help other people.”
“She made us so proud,” Anderson said. “I learned so much from her in these last two years.
“But, some times, you have to lose your bravest. That’s just how it is.”
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Andrew Knittle may be reached at 214-3926.