Elderly man's marriage to caretaker challenged

Eighty-three-year old Perry ''Bit" Whatley says he's not worried about his $2.5 million fortune, even though it's put him at the center of a legal battle stretching from Texas to Boston.

His immediate worry is getting back on his feet and going home to Texas with his wife, Whatley said during an interview Saturday in his hospital room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he's receiving treatment for diabetes.

''She makes my days brighter," said Whatley, as he smiled warmly at Dawn Whatley, the 61-year-old woman who served as his caretaker before quietly marrying him in a small ceremony in January.

But Perry Whatley's future is now in the hands of a federal judge in Boston, who is scheduled to hold a hearing today on whether Whatley is suffering from abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation from his wife.

Whatley's niece and nephew, who were his beneficiaries until he remarried after the death of his wife of more than 50 years, accuse Dawn Whatley of taking advantage of a mentally impaired man and marrying him for his money. A Boston advocacy group for the elderly has taken on Perry Whatley's cause and wants someone appointed to oversee his care, someone other than his wife.

Dawn Whatley says her husband's relatives are motivated by greed. She said she married him to fulfill a promise to his late wife that she would care for him in his home until he died.

''Relatives think they ought to come first. It's not always true," said Perry Whatley, who occasionally had difficulty remembering things during the interview, but said he wants to continue living in his Baytown, Texas, home with his wife.

''I imagine they probably were humiliated to be set aside," said Whatley, referring to his niece and nephew. ''I didn't mean it that way. I was just trying to take care of my business in the way I wanted it taken care of."

But documents filed in US District Court in Boston offer a different view of Whatley's case. Southwest Boston Senior Services, an elderly-services agency based in Jamaica Plain, is petitioning the court to put the agency or someone other than Dawn Whatley, in charge of protecting Perry Whatley.

The agency is urging US District Judge Patti B. Saris to keep Whatley at Beth Israel or move him to a nursing home if necessary until he can be safely returned to Texas to face ongoing state court hearings.

The petition says Dawn Whatley ''surreptitiously whisked [her husband] off to Massachusetts" to avoid court proceedings in Texas over whether his relatives should be named his guardians.

The Texas millionaire's niece and nephew contend that he was impaired when he remarried and that his new wife is trying to cash in all his annuities, which total $1.7 million.

But Houston lawyer Daniel J. Shea, who represents the couple, ridiculed the suggestion that Dawn Whatley has been neglecting or abusing her husband, pointing out that she brought him for diabetes treatment at Beth Israel and the renowned Joslin Clinic.

Earlier this year, Shea added, she arranged for him to have surgery to open blockages in both of his carotid arteries at the equally prestigious Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston.

Various doctors involved in the case have described Perry Whatley as impaired, but differ on just how much. While one said he was incapacitated by dementia, another said his mental faculties were appropriate for a man of his age who has been ill.

His nephew, Robert Daniel Whatley, said during an interview from his Austin home that he and his sister, Jeanie Anderson, had no plans to put their uncle in a nursing home and petitioned for guardianship in April after discovering that his uncle had secretly wed. He said he became alarmed when Dawn Whatley cashed in a $500,000 annuity belonging to his uncle, collecting $362,000 after being assessed a penalty for early withdrawal.

''We're concerned that at the rate money is spent, there's not going to be any money for him to be cared for in the not so distant future," he said. ''We don't feel she has his best interest at heart. Quite frankly, she sees a payback at the end."

He said that Dawn Whatley recently spent money on home improvements to his uncle's house, including paving a circular driveway and enclosing a porch.

But Dawn Whatley said she used her own money on the improvements, at a cost of about $15,000, to make the house more comfortable for her husband.

She said she cashed in the annuity because Perry Whatley's checking account had dwindled to $30,000 and it costs about $9,000 a month to pay all his bills and care for him. She said the money from the annuities is being held in trust by his lawyer.

Perry Whatley, a former machinist, said that he and his late wife, Florence, both worked for Exxon and amassed a small fortune by saving and investing in stocks. They had no children.

Dawn Whatley, who was previously married to two other men and has three children, met Perry Whatley nine years ago when she began caring for his mother-in-law. When the elderly woman died in 1999, she began caring for Whatley's wife, Florence. Three months after Florence Whatley's death, the caretaker moved in with Perry Whatley and began caring for him.

When asked why he married his caretaker, Perry Whatley said he'd known Dawn for a long time and ''my wife had lots of confidence in her."

''I just tried to hold things together," he said.

Dawn Whatley said she married Perry Whatley because ''I love him; I wanted to take care of him."

She said she feared that his relatives would force her to move out and put him in a nursing home. ''As his wife, I can stop him from being put in a nursing home," she said. ''He's my sweetheart."

Perry Whatley said he wants Dawn Whatley by his side and then joked, ''Not all the time."

When asked if he thinks he needs a guardian, Perry Whatley quipped, ''No ma'am, as long as I'm happily married."