Have Pen Will Travel

I began writing for various publications in 1977

• Some of the magazines and newspapers I've published articles in are:  American Songwriter, Country Hotline News, Country Song Roundup, Tune In, Gambling Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Country Style, Launch.Com, Texas Escapes
• Other:
  
• ...columnist for Country Hotline News
• ...contributed a story about Jerry Jeff Walker to Song, a book published by American Songwriter Magazine
• ...contributed a chapter about working with New Zealand artists Gray Bartlett, Brendan Dugan and Jodi Vaughn when they were in the US for,  Highway of Legends a book by New Zealand writer Dianne Haworth, Harper Collins Publishers.
  
• ...currently the publicist for Arlington Music Hall, Arlington, Texas,  

Another "perk" is getting to travel with fellow writers.  Here I am on an excursion into the wilds of New York City's Central Park  with Vernell Hackett and Deborah Evans Price.  Only moments before I had been accosted by a tall, quite handsome carriage horse named Anthony who was intent on sharing my cheese Danish breakfast.  Fortunately the carriage driver rescued me by providing a carrot with which I was able to distract Anthony long enough to climb into the safety of the carriage. 

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I was 10 when the ambition to be a writer overtook me.  I can't describe it any other way.  I did not know any writers, in fact mostly only read comic books at that age, but that did not stop me from writing "stories" in my Big Chief notebook which I shared with fellow students.  Life intervened and I married and became a full-time wife and mother. 

When I was 37 I enrolled in a journalism class at a local junior college.  The instructor urged me to submit an essay I had written for class to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  It was accepted and they sent me a check for $25.  I am still, all these many years later, surprised about that. 

Larry Gatlin performed on campus. I submitted a 12 page article Gatlin to Country Music World, a startup magazine  being published by Johnnie High in Grapevine, Texas.  A startup writer and a startup publication... the timing was just right.  This led to an offer to submit articles to another startup magazine, Texas Nickelodian. 

There was no time to serve an apprenticeship into proper procedures of interviewing performers and writing for magazines.  One day I was a "stay at home" housewife, nervous about signing up for a college course, a few weeks later I was accepting writing assignments and asking security guards at concerts where “backstage” was.

I met Student Activities Director, Jayne Lybrand at the Larry Gatlin news conference and she subsequently invited me to sign up for work/study in the Student Activities office.    During the next two semesters I would learn a lot about artist promotion and publicity from Jayne who booked a diverse succession of lecturers and entertainers on campus, including Dr. Joyce Brothers, The Oak Ridge Boys, Vincent Bugliosi, Larry Gatlin, and former boxer Joe Frazier.  The publicity for the first two Oak Ridge Boys Stars for Children concerts was handled through Jayne's office.  

 

Larry and Rudy Gatlin aboard the Gatlin Diver a dive boat at Treasure Island resort on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean...photo by Dorothy Hamm

 

Ten years after that first story about Larry Gatlin, I interviewed him again on Grand Cayman for Tune-In and Country Song Roundup.

Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan performing on the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN

I met Gray Bartlett, Brendan Dugan when the New Zealand entertainers were voted best vocalist and best band for the International County Music Gala in Fort Worth.  In subsequent visits to the US I did publicity for them, arranging newsparer and radio and TV interviews.  Derwood Rowell interviewed them on the Channel 11 noon show, a program I still miss more than 30 years after its demise.  (I met Roxane Atwood there, long before she went to Nashville to become a field reporter for The Nashville Network and go on to many other achievements such as producer of television shows.) 

The New Zealanders were guests on the Bill Mack show and on Country Crossroads a radio show heard around the world at that time.  Stan Knowles was the producer of this much loved radio show that featured Jerry Clower and Bill Mack talking with country music entertainers and movie stars such as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  I was amazed to learn those folks seldom or never saw each other.  Stan interviewed the artists separately and spliced it all together seamlessly to make it sound as if everyone was sitting around a pot belly stove in a country store chatting between songs.

I was able to also book Gray and Brendan on TNN's Nashville Now show with Ralph Emory and they were guests on George Hamilton IV's segment of the The Grand Ole Opry. (see phot above) 

A year or so later, Brendan arranged for me to visit him and his wife Sandy and Gray and his wife Trish in New Zealand for a three week tour of the country, where I was feted and celebrated, learned the rudiments of shearing sheep, visited a village in rotarua that had been buried to it rooftops in volcanic ash, flew in an airplane upside down and was introduced to a "proper English tea" and also tasted the wonderful New Zealand meringue dessert, Pavlova.  

As I said, it has been an interesting journey, on which, thankfully, I am still traveling.

 

A photo op with Rodney Crowell and Deborah Evans Price at Billy Bob's Texas world famous Fort Worth nightclub where I would conduct many interviews through the years for Country Hotline News, Country Song Roundup and Tune-In magazines.

1978, 1979, 1981, Production Assistant and Talent Coordinator for 3 CBS Blackhawk Telethons

Beginning in 1978, when cable television was being introduced to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I was writing for a local magazine titled Coor's Country and through that connection was hired by Xenny Mitchell from CBS Blackhawk Cable to coordinate talent for their introductory telethon. 

"Where will I find enough performers to fill up 15 hours of programming," I asked Johnnie High, who was General Manager of the Grapevine Opry at that time.  High handed me his rolodex of performers and I began making calls.  Acts for that telethon and two subsequent telethons ranged from the 40 piece DFW Civic Orchestra, Ballet Folklorica and Norwegian folk dancers to country singers such as Wanda Jackson, Don Edwards, David Murphy and a man who played the William Tell Overture on pencil.  

I could never have delivered such an array of talent if not for Johnnie High's help.  He gave me my first job in country music...writing for his CountryMusic World magazine...and when another job, for which I had absolutley no experience, came along, his help made it possible for me to do it the satisfaction of the company from Chicago.  They hired me for subsequent telethons in our area.   

Steve Holy, Deborah Evans Price, Dorothy, Jon Rutherford, back stage at Johnnie High's Country Music Revue. 

The late Johnnie High opened doors for many hopeful performers and at least one would-be writer.  I will always be grateful to him for giving me my first writing job in country music.  It has been an interesting journey.