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Morning News

Tabby Pitts: Courage on Wheels

Aired March 9, 2000 - 9:39 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A man in Georgia is turning heads with a new invention. He came up with it after refusing to let a physical disability slow him down.

CNN's Brian Cabell now with more on his amazing story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TABBY PITTS, WHIZMOBILE DRIVER: Take this cut right here.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tabby Pitts calls it his Whizmobile. It's actually a motorized gurney. More important, it's his ticket to freedom. He was paralyzed from waist down when he was a child. He had jumped off an eight-step porch.

Years later, he found he couldn't sit up in a wheelchair any longer because his hip kept breaking. Doctors said he'd have to stay in bed, live in a nursing home.

PITTS: I know the Lord could heal me in an instant, but maybe he's got some other purpose for me.

CABELL: Pitts couldn't see lying in bed doing nothing the rest of his life, so with some help, he designed his Whizmobile. This is actually his third and most sophisticated one.

His wheels help him go to work every day. He makes belts, he cleans saddles and harnesses, he holds court with longtime friends, and goes about his business like anyone else in this south Georgia town.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, Tabby, let's look and see.

CABELL: No problem getting around town. He has a driver's license and a customized van with hand controls.

PITTS: Charlie, how you doing? Doing fine.

CABELL: Pitts knows just about everybody in town.

PITTS: Well, I've never said I was handicapped. I just told them I do things different and, you know, nobody around here's ever looked at me any other way that I know of.

CABELL: He lives alone, but his good friend Jean DeBorde lives next door.

They dine together frequently and talk about life.

JEAN DEBORDE, PITTS' FRIEND: I don't care how down you are. You can talk to him and you will feel up. I mean, he's just that kind of person.

CABELL: Pitts also surfs the Internet. But his passion, as you can see from his pictures on the wall and his movie collection, is Westerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Tabby. How are you doing?

PITTS: Hey, Branson, how you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you. Fine.

CABELL: Almost every evening Pitts drives out to this horse farm. He's always loved cowboys and horses. And that one over there, that's his horse, Smoke. A little frisky, doesn't like to be tied down; a lot like his owner, perhaps. Smoke seems to treasure his freedom as much his owner does.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Ashburn, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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