When I was in high school, our local country club held an annual golf tournament. One of the regular players was Dale Robertson. I worked at the country club my senior year and was assigned the task of cleaning his clubs after the first round. When I took them out to him the next morning, he tipped me $20 (a LOT of money back then) and autographed my cowboy hat.
After I left the Air Force, LOML was the Reservations Manager for the local Hilton and we got to meet a number of celebs. We got free concert tickets and back stage passes to the likes of Atlanta Rythum Section and Sha Na Na. When someone she knew I'd like came in, she'd call me and let me know. One such individual was Clayton Moore. When he checked in she told him that I was a huge fan and he told her to have me come up to his room when I came to pick her up. He was true in person to the Lone Ranger credo and was a really good man. This was during the time that a court decision ruled he could not appear in the mask, but all other gear was okay so he wore dark glasses and the rest of his Lone Ranger outfit. Anyway, we went up to his room and visited for about an hour. He had me strap up his twin Colt 45's. Man was that cool!!! I also got his autograph inside my cowboy hat (yep, same hat).
Then about 10 years later we moved and frequented a bar where John Anderson (country singer) appeared several times a year. We got to know him and I even had his adress for quite a while.
Iin the '90's I attended a builder's show in Houston w/my brother. We met Richard Petty and Norm Abram and both got autographed photos of Norm. And we each got to talk to him for about 5 minutes. He is a really great guy and does not hesitate to talk anyone who shares a like interest.
Up until I moved back to Texas I was in a woodworking club in the Dayton area. Among our membership was none other than Scott Phillips of the "American Wodshop" TV show and Master Turner Judy Ditmer. They are both quite the character. Scott was looking for a canon, yes a real one, and I gave him several sources for black powder canon. I also got Judy to autograph one of her books during a quarterly get together. If you see her, you may notice that at least one article of clothing will be purple... but I never asked her about it.
My mom and dad were very good friends with Jerry Reed and his wife until his not so distant passing. They saw each other when they could and exchanged Christmas and birthday cards. No, I never met him, but always wanted to and the story is too good not to share.
But my true claim to celeb hits is Tommy Lee Jones. He is my 3rd cousin... yes, really. But I've yet to meet him. I know his mother quite well, and my dad and grandmother knew him well until he went to Hollywood.
And last, but by no means least, I have been on national televsion. Remember the '90's show "Unsloved Mysteries"? No, Cav, I wasn't the suspect. I had a summer job when I was in college and then later when I was a school teacher as a Lake Ranger. I won't go intot he gruesome details, but we had a teenage boy and girl come up missing the night of July 4th and I was one of the last people to talk to them. The producers wanted me to do a reenactment of that night, but the agency said that since I was no longer on the payroll, I couldn't represent the agency. So they used me as a extra who played a Sherriff's deputy (I was handling the gurney with the body bag). I was dissaponted at first, but then I found out that reenactors didn't get paid and extras made $50/day... and they fed me. And anyone who knows me knows how much I like food. The episode was the first episode of the '91 season and aired in Sept. Unfortunately, this mystery is still unsolved today and my haert goes out to the parents of Shane and Sally.
