, marymargaret@rustonleader.com
12-01-2006
Some columns write themselves. Some columns are fully intended to be expressions of gratitude. And some columns contain ideas for any number of future columns. This column is all three.
This column is about a relatively new member of our community — Linnea Fayard. I first met Linnea at Squire Creek Country Club where she is Square Creek development marketing director/real estate.
I had already heard that she had been one of the top runners up in the Miss America competition. That was easy to understand even from our first meeting because she is a strikingly beautiful young woman.
Then I saw a press release with a detailed account of her singing and performing accomplishments. She has performed internationally in major markets. The press release was about the concert she gave recently at the Dixie Center for the Arts. Judy Burt delivered that press release personally with the comment that it would be a show simply “not to be missed.” She was right.
“An Afternoon with Linnea Fayard & Friends” was a full blown success from the first moment to the last. As I sat in the audience, I started thinking about all of the things I wanted to write about that delightful and meaningful Sunday afternoon.
Now let me return to my first paragraph. The column is writing itself. Now for the expressions of gratitude.
First, I want to thank Linnea for taking the many hours it surely took to plan this event and to rehearse each number to perfection. I want to join her in thanking the people who worked with her to make this concert such a highly-professional production, which is a great honor for a hometown audience.
Next, I want to follow her gracious expression of thanks to a number of people who participated in making this stellar production a perfect conclusion for the Ruston Main Street Commission Winter Wonderland.
Among those were host and vocalist Teddy Allen, musician and vocalist Scott Kelly, set provider Bodie’s Furniture, filmer Sam Speed and Glory Productions and Mary Fran Crook and Marlen Waters of the Dixie Center for the Arts.
Not only from the stage, but also in the concert program did Linnea express her appreciation for all who took part. She saved Judy Burt for the designation “Woman of the Year” whom she said “ ... was not only responsible for getting all these people to help me but who has also managed to still like me through it all ... (she) is a treasured friend and one heck-of-a-woman.”
Now I want to offer my personal thanks, and I am sure that of many others, in saying how much this endeavor was appreciated. Linnea’s stage presence and sincere warmth which emanated from every song left me feeling as if I had just made a special friend. So, as Linnea thanked the members of the audience for coming, I am thanking her for “having us over.”
And, my final criteria for the first paragraph of this column is the creation of ideas for future columns. I am not sure at what date or in what manner, but I simply have to write something about the Martina McBride song “In My Daughter’s Eyes” which Linnea sang to her own charming daughter who joined her mother on stage.
That is, of course, where I got the title for today’s column, “Fayard sings from the heart.”
Again, thank you, Linnea.
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