Statement about "Footprints in the Sand"

The following statement is from the son of Mary Stevenson, author of "Footprints in the Sand". It was sent to WOW Zone on May 30th, 2003 with permission to post.  

The narrative, by Basil Zangare, is completely unedited.

Basil Zangare:

We had come to an agreement through mediation back in October of 2002, which Kathy led us to believe she would honor. Instead she and her husband fired the attorney, Robert Fuller, and hired an attorney who filed further petitions while pretending to go along with the deal.

Her most recent attorney has stated that he is recommending the settlement, but the settlement agreement has not been executed.  The next hearing date is June 18, 2003, and we are awaiting word as to whether the Hamptons will honor the agreement or not.

Kathy has lead people to believe that her relationship with my mother was more than it was. She has used and continues to use deception to present herself as my mother's friend and manager although she no longer has any legal right. This has enabled her to misappropriate much of the money that was paid to my mother through royalties and other income.

She also lead my mother and other members of our family to believe that she was helping her out of the kindness of her heart when in reality she was charging her for even the slightest service according to numerous entries to the Stevenson Enterprises ledger and corresponding withdrawals from her personal account. Kathy had gained so much of my  mother's confidence that she was able to get her sign contracts without even reading them and issue checks to Kathy. I didn't find much of this out until someone close to my mother contacted me to let me know Kathy had admitted to getting my mother to sign away most of her rights.

Kathy had registered a d.b.a. of Stevenson Enterprises with my mother and her as the  owners. In the spring of 1997 she registered a separate d.b.a., Stevenson Enterprises Inc.,  with Kathy as the sole owner. Six months later she dissolved the original Stevenson Enterprises, which enabled her to collect my mother's royalties and conduct other business  under the Stevenson Enterprises Inc. name. She continued this practice even after being ordered by the courts to stop. She also has been operating an unauthorized 'Footprints' web site to attract visitors with several links to sites that promote her and her company, P.R. Productions.

Sometime around September 1997 my mother said that Kathy told her the publisher recalled  her biography due to lack of sales and they wanted their advances returned. Several months later my Aunt Helen said Kathy told her the same thing.

Kathy moved my mother from a nursing home in Las Vegas to one in California without  notifying immediate family. This event occurred only a week before my son was due to  graduate from high school. My mother had been waiting all my son's life to see him graduate but was robbed of that by the move which made her miss it. The move was spurred by my decision to move to Las Vegas to be closer to my mother. For some time I was also fooled by Kathy and had given her many details. I don't think it was a coincidence that Kathy moved her from Las Vegas just two months before my move to Las Vegas. Kathy also gave orders to the nursing home to not give information about where she was moved.

She also had my name removed from the emergency call list at the hospital and the nursing home several times between the fall of 1996 and spring of 1998. Kathy had tried several times to get me to 'let her go' when she was in a coma in 1996 of which she recovered from.

Kathy had my mother sign a series of contracts that eventually resulted in Kathy securing 100% of my mother's royalties and payments from book advances and movie options. She didn't do anything to earn it, not even try to help prove my mother as the true author of 'Footprints in the Sand' or try to secure additional income for my mother for the poem. All income was already established before the contracts came into play. The only deal that was made while Kathy was acting as manager was for an illustrated book and was set up by Gale Giorgio the author of my mother's biography, which the $5,000 advance payment mysteriously never reached my mother. 

Just before my mother went into a coma she asked me to help her get everything back including her handwritten 1939 copy of 'Footprints in the Sand' from Kathy, which she didn't know Kathy had. Since my mother's passing Kathy has put a claim on the estate, which I have been disputing for the past 4 years. This has gotten in the way of proving my mother as the true author of the poem.

After my mother went into the coma that she never recovered from, Kathy claimed in open court that I was estranged from my mother for many years and at one time sued her for possession of her house. All of Kathy's allegations were easily disproved and I was able to prove that I had a close and loving relationship with my mother.

I will continue to fight to recover all that was taken. If anyone reading this would like to lend assistance with the legal fees, they can send contributions to the following address:


            Lisa MacCarley
            Attorney at Law
            3436 North Verdugo Road
            Suite 100
            Glendale, CA 91208


Any help would be greatly appreciated. For more information about my mother you can visit our new web site at www.Footprints-inthe-Sand.com.

The Full Footprints Story on WOW Zone