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| From left, County Commissioner John Matthews, Macie-Joy Matthews, Johnson County Sheriff Bob Alford and Texas State Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, smile for a photo on election night at the Republican headquarters in Cleburne. (Courtesy photo) |
The potential and strong energy of 7-year-old Macie-Joy Matthews of Burleson is so hard to ignore that President George W. Bush couldn’t help but pay his respects.
While entering a Republican political rally on Nov. 6, 2006, at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Bush spotted then 5-year-old Macie-Joy in the crowd. She was giving him the same thumbs up she was taught to give by her Aggie father, Johnson County Commissioner John Matthews, and the same thumbs up Anita Perry, the governor’s wife, gave her as she entered the rally with Bush.
As Joette Matthews, Macie-Joy’s mother, recalls, Bush promised the young girl, who had waited three hours to see the president, he would return to her after his speech, a promise he kept.
“When he came out she started shaking and crying and was like, ‘Mommy, why am I crying? I’m so excited and happy, so why am I crying?’” said Joette. “It was just like when you see people pass out for The Beatles.”
After a 30-minute speech, he rounded the stage to return to Macie-Joy, who then, as her mom recalls, “lunged for the president,” which prompted security personnel to lunge for Macie-Joy.
“I’ve been waiting to see you my whole life,” Macie-Joy said, remembering her special moment. “It was really fun, and I hugged him and kissed him, and yes, he kissed me.”
Joette said the president was taken aback by the young lady and told her something along the lines of “‘This little girl listened intently to everything I said and clapped when she was supposed to. Most adults don’t do that.’”
He kissed her on both cheeks and said, “‘She is so precious,’” said Joette.
Today, Macie-Joy is no stranger to some of the state’s influential politicians. On Nov. 4, she was as much a staple inside the Republican headquarters in Cleburne, weaving in and out of the crowd with a red bow on her head, as any adult more than twice her age. Texas State Rep. Rob Orr asked Macie-Joy that night to be his page, or assistant, for a day in Austin.
“It is a big honor for Macie-Joy, who hasn’t even reached the minimum age to be a page, which is 8,” Orr said. “Out of all the people in Johnson County, she gets to be one of 10 who will have the honor of working alongside a full-time staff person on the House floor.”
Orr said he chose Macie-Joy to be a page because he thinks “she’s very bright and has a tremendous personality.”
The 7-year-old has also known Johnson County Sheriff Bob Alford since birth.
“He’s sort of like my boyfriend,” she said. “And he calls me his girlfriend.”
Alford said he met Macie-Joy at First Baptist Church in Burleson.
“At church when Macie-Joy was much smaller, I looked forward to going every Sunday primarily because she would run up and give me a hug, and I’d have a piece of candy hiding in my pocket for her,” Alford said. “She’s first of all precious and not only a beautiful child but very caring, tender and mature for her age.”
Alford said he and Macie-Joy share a passion for horses. They’ve been riding together several times. When they attended the same church, he said, she would come to him to share horse stories because she knew he loved horses.
“Macie-Joy cares about people, life and animals and is far more outgoing than most children her age,” he said. “She rarely meets a stranger, is very polite and well mannered.”
But the president, Orr and Alford aren’t the only state officials she eagerly approaches in public. Joette said she recently spent time with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott at a rally for Orr about a month ago, and shortly thereafter he mentioned Macie-Joy in a speech.
“We had no idea where she was and looked out and this car comes pulling up under the porte-cochére, and there she is greeting him, talking a mile a minute, taking him out and putting him in his wheelchair,” her mother recalls. “Half the time I don’t even know where she is, taken the fact that I trust that she can behave appropriately. I just let her go, and she works the room.”
Besides her interest in politics, Macie-Joy’s other interests are atypical for a 7 year old. Joette said she and her husband encourage Macie-Joy and her sister Kelli-Grace, 5, to try two new activities every summer, several of which have stuck. She spends a lot of time barrel racing on horseback, ice-skating and ballroom dancing, she said.
“I saw ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and saw how good it was, and I said, ‘Mommy, how do you get to be on ‘Dancing With the Stars’? And she said you have to take ballroom lessons,’” Macie-Joy said.
So far, she said she has won gold in all her competitions, and very soon, she will be dancing with an 11-year-old boy she knows instead of her two instructors.
“He’s a handsome little kid,” said Macie-Joy, who is also training with Haley Richards, a rodeo clown.
Cindy Day, Macie-Joy’s second-grade teacher at Boulevard Baptist Christian Academy, said Macie-Joy is one of her top students.
“She’s very energetic and personable with a bubbly personality,” she said. “The whole room is her friend.”
Day said the types and amount of extracurricular activities that Macey-Joy does are unusual, but she said, “I think it’s great.”
The unique thing about Macie-Joy is her ability to appreciate everything, Joette said.
“We can walk from the car to the housem and there will be a sunset, and she will stop and appreciate it, saying ‘Look at that sunset God made for us’ or ‘Look at that flower;’ look at this and look at that,” she said. “One day two years ago we were sitting outside a Starbucks, and she had her tea and goes, ‘This is just exquisite.’ I almost fell into a nearby fountain after she said that.”
Macie-Joy was recently baptized at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, where her family now attends church, and her mother said she almost shook and cried as much as she did when she met the president.
For Macie-Joy, there is a simple explaination.
“I love special moments,” she said. “I smile, and I smile, and I dream about them.”
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