Have Pen Will Travel

Began writing for publication in 1977

• List of publications include:  American Songwriter Magazine, Country Hotline News, Country Song RoundupMagazine, Country Style Magazine, Tune In, Milner's Country Roads (Dallas Morning News Sunday supplement,) Gambling Times Magazine, Fort Worth Star-Telegram,  Performance, Amusement Business, DFW People, Armadillo Country, Music World News,  Launch.Com, Texas Escapes
• Other:
  
• ...columnist for Country Hotline News
• ...contributed 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.     

Another "perk" is getting to travel with fellow writers to places I might never go alone.

Here I am in the wilds of New York City's Central Park with Vernell Hackett and Deborah Evans Price.  Moments before I had been accosted by a tall, dark,  handsome carriage horse named Anthony who was intent on sharing my cheese Danish breakfast. 

As Anthony advanced on the pastry in my hand, the carriage driver commanded that I not let him eat that!

Backing up and holding the pastry behind my back was not working as Anthony continued to move toward me, the muscles in his sholders flexing with each step.  In a nano-second, I realized that hampered as Anthony was by the carriage and harness, I was still way over-matched.  Fortunately, the carriage driver rushed to my aid, handing me a carrot which distracted Anthony and as he chowed down on a veggie breakfast I was able to climb to safety in the carriage, with breakfast pastry, coffee and dignity more or less intact. 

 

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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 didn't know any writers, mostly only read school books and comics at that age, but I began 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. 

At age 37 I enrolled in a journalism class at a local junior college.  The instructor suggested I submit an essay I had written for class to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  It was accepted as a guest column and paid $25.  I am still, all these many years later, surprised about that. 

Larry Gatlin performed on campus. I crashed the press conference and wrote a 12-page article about Gatlin and submitted it to Country Music World, a startup magazine published by Johnnie High in Grapevine, Texas.  A startup writer and a startup publication...the timing was just right.  This led to many more articles for CMW as long as it was being published.  Next came 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 publications.  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 department.    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.  Also, 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 I had first interviewed Larry Gatlin at the junior college in Hurst, Texas, I would interview him again on Grand Cayman Island for Tune-In and Country Song Roundup magazines.

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

In subsequent visits to the US I did publicity for Gray and Brendan and their band including singer Jodi Vaughn.  I arranged newspaper,  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 radio 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 artists seldom or never saw each other.  Stan interviewed each separately and spliced it all together seamlessly to make it sound as if they were sitting around a pot-belly stove in a country store, chatting between songs.  He was/is a very talented and dear man who helped many young entertainers over the years.

I was able to 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 Grand Ole Opry. 

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 Rotorua that had been buried to it rooftops in volcanic ash, flew in an airplane upside down "rode" a racehorse and was introduced to a "proper English tea" and also tasted the wonderful New Zealand meringue dessert, Pavlova.  

Over the years Gray would send some interesting my way including a larger than life singer/songwriter Kimball Brisco Johnson.  Kimball brought a 9 piece band and near about knocked the roof off such music venues as the Swallows Inn in Capistrano, California, the White Elephant in Fort Worth and the Arboretum in Athens, Texas where he made some life-long friends with the citizens there.  Kimball fell in love with the Fort Worth Stockyards.  He visited the clubs, bought rounds for the house, arm-wrestled the cowboys and flirted with the ladies.  He was big, strong as an ox, and totally unforgettable.   When my son died of cancer I received flowers as a gesture of condolence from many people.  The largest bouquet came from Kimball in New Zealand.  Sadly within months, Kimball would also die of cancer.

Athens Arboretum director Teresa Glasgow had never heard of the New Zealand dessert named for the opera singer Pavlova.  But she asked her caterer to look it up on the Internet and make it for Kimball's meet the artist reception when he performed at the Arboretum.  It was as delicious as I remembered.  The caterer said she was so pleased with it she would add it to here catering menu. 

Each person we meet seems to bring elements and adventures into our lives and also into the lives of others we know.  It is 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 a 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 CountryMusic World magazine...and when another job, for which I had absolutely 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 Hamm, Jon Rutherford, back stage at Johnnie High's Country Music Revue in Arlington, Texas. 

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.