SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : 2 Local Women Receive Awards From Clinton
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Cheryl Bess and her mother, Norma, were among 10 people honored by President Clinton in Washington last week for service to victims of crime.
The Besses received their awards in the Oval Office after watching the President tape his weekly radio address.
Bess, blinded in a 1984 attack, is a student at Saddleback College and disc jockey on the Sunday morning shift for jazz radio station KSBR-FM.
Bess, now 25, has dedicated herself to educating others about how to survive crimes. Her mother was honored for supporting her daughter after the attack.
As a teen-ager, Cheryl Bess was kidnaped by a man who tried to rape her, then poured a quart of sulfuric acid over her head and left her for dead in the desert.
She has had more than 50 reconstructive surgeries to rebuild her eyelids, nose and lips with skin grafts. “I’m going on with my life,” she said in a 1993 interview.
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