Photo Contributed by Scenic City Women's Network / Louise MandrellThe first time Louise Mandrell ever booked a speaking engagement was for the opening of the East Brainerd chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist 20 years ago.
"I got there and found out I was speaking to an audience of ministers, and I was so nervous," she said in a phone interview. But that wasn't her only unexpected moment.
"Back then, it was new to have a dove release, and they asked me to participate in a dove release at the end. I was holding a dove and looked up and saw a hawk circling, so I wouldn't release the dove," she recalled with a laugh.
"We did finally convince her to release the dove, and it made it back home safely," said Stephen Pike with a chuckle, vice president of Chattanooga Funeral Home.
Mandrell returns to Chattanooga on Thursday, April 7, to speak at the Praise! breakfast hosted by Scenic City Women's Network, an organization designed to encourage and equip working Christian women. There won't be any doves released, but spirits may soar as Mandrell gives her testimony, sings and plays her fiddle.
"She's a very genuine person with a God-given talent," Pike said of the singer. "She's truly a gifted individual who can inspire people who hear her."
Mandrell is the middle sibling in the singing and dancing trio of sisters who made their family a household name with their television variety show "Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters," which aired from 1980 to 1982. Barbara, Louise and Irlene sang, danced, acted in comedy sketches and played a band's worth of instruments each week. Each episode closed with a gospel segment.
Sister Barbara had already risen to country music fame in the 1970s, and Louise said the TV show "was a huge opportunity for Irlene and me."
She said the sisters don't perform together anymore, "but we talk almost every day. Both sisters are my prayer partners. Barbara was my sister, my mentor and a big influence on my Christian walk. I saw her do things that made me realize what an impact fame can have."
For example, she described a discussion that happened at the start of their variety show.
"The first week, the producers came in and said the network wanted to take out the gospel segment. Barb said, 'Tell them we have a contract for 12 weeks, and they will hear gospel. After that, they can cancel us if they want.'
"She didn't back down. But after the first-week ratings, we never heard from them about that again. So every week we closed with gospel," Mandrell recalled.
A multitalented singer and instrumentalist in her own right, Mandrell had several hits while signed with RCA Records in the 1980s. "I'm Not Through Loving You Yet," "Maybe My Baby," "Too Hot To Sleep" and "Save Me" all notched spots in the Top 10. She continued performing into the 1990s, when she decided to spend more time with her family. She settled in East Tennessee to raise her teenage daughter and opened her own theater in Pigeon Forge, the first woman to do so. She wowed full houses not with only her singing and dancing but her ability to play as many as 13 instruments in one two-hour show.
"I was entertaining at night to packed houses. I would invite each audience to our Sunday morning services in the theater, and I would be shocked at how many people came," she said.
While a resident of Pigeon Forge, she became involved in volunteering for charities such as United Way, American Cancer Society and Boy Scouts of America. In 2005, she closed her theater and moved to Nashville with her husband.
This and other stories about her childhood, her sisters and "miracles that brought us to where we are today" will be part of her testimony at Praise. She said she doesn't accept many speaking engagements, and the ones she does are only booked when she can share her testimony.
"Unless it is Christian-oriented, I don't do it. I love giving my testimony."
During the breakfast, Scenic City Women's Network will present its Lydia Award to two honorees, Liane Brown and Flo Samuels, a first-time tie for the prestigious award, according to Renee Nail, the organization's executive director.
Photos Contributed by Scenic City Women's Network / Liane Brown and Flo Samuels will share the Lydia Award,"Liane, as a survivor of Russian occupation and from the Nazis, is an amazing story of courage under fire yet still living her faith in such dire unfathomable circumstances," she said in a news release. "Flo's radical story of salvation after growing up in one of the poorest sections of New York is one of faith in action, every day, every breath, every life."
Both women, she said, are "fearless and faithful contenders for the faith."
Reservation deadline is April 1.
Email Susan Pierce at spiercentn@yahoo.com.
Photos Contributed by Scenic City Women's Network / Liane Brown and Flo Samuels will share the Lydia Award,