A former reporter’s new look is hot off the presses.

by Jess McCuan . photo by Matt Rose

“I worked hard for these gray hairs,” says Leslie Boyd, a 58-year-old longtime newspaper reporter who recently took up a career in health care advocacy. We were discussing whether or not, as part of her makeover, Boyd should dye her hair—something she’s never done. Her teenage granddaughters, Lauren, Peyton and Meghan, are always encouraging her to spruce up her hair and clothes, she says. Peyton teasingly suggested she go on the TV show What Not To Wear. But Boyd, in addition to having little interest in appearing on reality TV, is simply comfortable with the way she looks. Her father was a longtime New England newspaperman, Lester Boyd, and his daughter has always been better known for her stories than her appearance. “Getting dressed up takes too much effort,” she says. “I was a hippie. I’m still a hippie.”

That said, she was willing to play our game. Especially if it meant more attention for her latest story. Boyd spent 28 years writing for newspapers, including seven at the Asheville Citizen-Times. She has covered all sorts of social issues—from poverty to religion to mental health. In 2005, her son Mike Danforth was diagnosed with colon cancer. He did not have health insurance and was unable to pay for early tests, even though a colonoscopy three years earlier had shown abnormalities. In 2008, Danforth died from the cancer, at age 33. In a memorable, emotional Citizen-Times column a few weeks before his death, Boyd wrote: “My son is dying from lack of health insurance.” The cancer could have been stopped, she said, but Danforth couldn’t afford treatments. “We need to demand something be done,” she wrote. “My son is more than a statistic. He and his brother are my heart and soul, and I will never, ever get over losing him.”

She didn’t get over it—and it probably cost her her job. The next year, she was the keynote speaker at a June healthcare reform rally for an Asheville group, WNC for Change. She spoke at other rallies later that summer. Trouble was, she had covered health topics for the newspaper, and some community members felt Boyd’s participation in the rallies compromised her journalistic ethics. Boyd says that, though her bosses were supportive, she volunteered to be laid off in August 2009.

She formed a nonprofit, Life o’ Mike, and threw herself into health care activism. On the Life o’ Mike website, people can share their health care travails. Boyd is seeking grants for a support program, Patient Pals & Family Friends, which will help people with serious illnesses and injuries.

In the meantime, VERVE wanted to turn her into the coolest-looking activist in town. The style team at downtown Asheville’s Ad-Lib boutique picked a pantsuit that complemented Boyd’s cornflower-blue eyes. Guadalupe Chavarria at Studio Chavarria gave her hair highlights and a simple, sleek cut that will be easy to maintain. Boyd brought a homemade bright green peace-sign necklace to the shoot. And she reluctantly took off a metal pin that she wears daily to remember Mike. “I believe so deeply in what I’m doing,” she says. It shows.

Check out Boyd’s nonprofit, www.lifeomike.org.
Boyd’s hair by Guadalupe Chavarria of Studio Chavarria. www.studiochavarria.com .
Makeup by Mendy Hoffman of Makeup at the Grove Arcade. www.makeupatga.com .
Clothing by Ad Lib boutique in downtown Asheville. 828-285-8838.