‘Idol’ fans phone the wrong LaKisha

FLINT, Mich. – Suddenly, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

Reporters wanted an interview. “American Idol” fans from Ohio to New York called with congratulations and promises to vote for her.

“You’re going to vote for me? For what?” LaKisha Jones, 26, remembers asking a caller. Jones, who rarely watches “Idol,” had no idea that she and one of the contestants shared the same first and last names and hometown.

“I didn’t even know the new season started until people started calling me,” says Jones, a factory worker and mother of four.

But she quickly figured out what the mixup was about and how to respond to the curious: “My name is LaKisha Jones, but I’m not on ‘American Idol.’ “

Even that, though, hasn’t stopped the reactions whenever she mentions her name in public.

“Everywhere I go and say my name, I get a lot of attention,” Jones says. “It’s exciting, but it’s kind of embarrassing, too.”

The two Joneses have more in common than their identical names. Both were born at Hurley Medical Center in 1980 and raised in Flint. Both are single mothers, and they’re roughly the same height – 5-foot-1.

But the similarities end there. The “Idol” finalist’s middle name is Ann, while the other’s full name is LaKisha Rena Jones.

“They look a whole lot different,” says LaKisha Rena’s father, Bennie Jones, adding that his daughter has “a smaller frame.”

And, unlike her famous counterpart, LaKisha Rena is not a gospel belter.

“I can’t sing at all,” she says.

But she’s working to achieve a dream, just like LaKisha Ann. LaKisha Rena has enrolled in a full-time nursing program at Mott Community College. She said she knows it won’t be easy, even with baby-sitting assistance from her parents and her children’s father.

In addition to caring for her kids – Jarvon Brown, 6; Renaja Brown, 5; Ernestine Brown, 2; and Omarion Brown, 4 months – LaKisha Rena is employed full time by Recticel Interiors, an auto supplies and parts factory. Working third shift means LaKisha Rena seldom watches “American Idol,” but she did make a point of catching one of the other LaKisha’s performances.

“I like her, and I hope she wins,” LaKisha Rena says. “But if she does win, I hope I won’t get any more harassing phone calls.”