Her “showbiz” career started in the second grade where because she was one of the smallest in the class, she got to wear the Donald Duck costume at a school event. I believe that her job was to pass out pamphlets or something, but once that duck costume went on, she was on. She immediately started doing cartwheels down the aisles and shaking everybody’s hand as the teachers stood there in shock.

One of the neatest things that happened Nathaniel, was when we moved to California, your Mom had already started school in Indiana, and even though she didn’t attend Coronado High until late November, she still was the “Freshman Of The Year.” (pictured above with uncle Curtis and your great-grandparents Sandy and Betty Johns) The following year she was the “Junior Of The Year” and the lead in the school’s big production of “South Pacific.” (see newspaper picture below)

Your Mom began her college career at NYU in New York where she studied drama. (your grandparents were also not very excited about her living in New York) Discovering that she could learn acting anywhere, she decided to switch back to academics where she made the Deans List and then and then transferred to UCLA.
A year or so later when she went back to New York for a visit, she popped in to see her old drama professor at NYU. He wanted to see if she still had her chops, so he had her read for him. After doing so, he told her that she was wasting her time going to college, she was as ready to audition for Broadway plays. He even offered to call me and explain the situation, but your Mom told him that there was no need for him to do that because I was already her biggest fan. Whew!

While at UCLA she began writing songs and singing with at the Whiskey the Roxy and several other venues in Hollywood. (pictured singing at the Roxy above) Even though singing was her whole life, she also loved to run, so we decided to run the LA Marathon together. (see a picture of us running a 10k in San Diego below) Running that Marathon was absolutely not only the hardest, but it was also the greatest thing that I’ve ever done with my daughter. We didn’t get to train together much, but we did do an excellent run along the Mediterranean in the South of France when I took her there for her 21st birthday.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude from UCLA, (I’m thinkin’ Suma for you) she began working as the assistant to a record company president named Charlie Minor which eventually led to her becoming the Licensing Director for WEA. (Warner Bros. Electra and Asylum Records)She also recorded an album with her band The Tortured Poets, but by now she was too smart and wouldn’t sign the onesided contract. The album was never released, but Buppa has it, so I get to enjoy it over and over again, and you can hear my favorite cut from it by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page,