Student Sits Among Stars
Heather Cooper worked at Wednesday’s Country Music Association Awards at the Grand Ol’ Opry and found out that things aren’t always as they appear.
“When Vince Gill was doing the emcee stuff, they’re changing the whole stage and you can’t see any of it going on,” she said from her room at Belmont University in Nashville.
When millions of television viewers gazed at country music stars seated near the stage, they actually saw Heather and 50 other relatively unknown people hired to fill seats.
Viewers in Coeur d’Alene didn’t mind the deception. Heather is a local girl gone south for college. A friend who designs sets for the awards show wrangled the seat-filling job for Heather, a die-hard country music fan.
“It was amazing,” Heather said, still in awe a day after the show. “I don’t know what could’ve been better.”
Heather, 20, went to Nashville a year ago in pursuit of stardom. She studied singing and the music business at Belmont. But a year in country music’s hub among zillions of aspiring and impoverished singers blew the stars from her eyes. She changed her emphasis to entertainment law.
“I knew I would need a job,” she said. “But I’d still perform if the opportunity arises.”
Her performance Wednesday wasn’t exactly what she’d planned. Heather filled Mary Chapin Carpenter’s seat during the day-long rehearsals so camera operators knew where to find the singer.
During the show, she filled Trisha Yearwood’s seat when the singer took the stage. Heather was seated with The Mavericks when they won the vocal group of the year award and cameras caught their reaction.
“My friends from Idaho called and they couldn’t even breathe,” she said, laughing. “They said, ‘We saw you on TV.’ They were so excited.”
Rubbing shoulders with country music’s elite thrilled Heather, but her common sense remained intact.
“They’re stars now, but they might not last forever,” she said. “I’ll stay in school. It’s really important to have a stable job.”
Credit for time served
Coeur d’Alene’s Al Harrison says he’s volunteered as a City Police reserve officer for 10-plus years because his girls (I think he means the four at home) like him in a uniform. For an old guy of 43, he does look great.
Al received a plaque and dinner at Cedars Friday for all the times he’s been called away from the dinner table to chase bad guys, direct parade traffic and clean up the town. Chief Dave Scates figures Al’s given well over 1,000 hours of his free time to the city, all while holding a full-time job with GTE.
It’s nice to know there are still white knights around.
Potato man
Remember Frank Finney, the Coeur d’Alene man who collects truckloads of donated potatoes and onions for the poor? He’s back at it.
Frank and Greg Smith unloaded 2,500 pounds of potatoes from Ephrata, Wash., at St. Vincent de Paul’s Friday. People in St. Vincent’s Coeur d’Alene shelters will mash, bake and fry for months.
Frank and Greg donate their time and gas as Coeur d’Alene Elks, which, by the way, voted to include women before the national hierarchy told them to.
Better than Poe
While we were walking our dog downtown one recent night, my daughter heard tromping behind us, turned and gasped. I turned and saw a tall figure about to run us down.
In the instant before the eyes focus, I flinched in fear, then recognized the “attacker” as my foreign exchange son trying to catch up with us. It’s lucky I don’t carry weapons …
I’m willing to unload some snazzy “Close to Home” T-shirts to those of you who’ll share your nail-biting scary stories. Keep ‘em true and under 300 words.
Shoot them off to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; fax them to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes