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Arts & Entertainment

Debby Boone Offers 'Reflections of Rosemary'

Pop Star to Perform Saturday at J. Scheidegger Center

The mother-in-law is often a topic of abuse and insult by comedians or in movies and television sitcoms. That's not the case for Debby Boone.

"I was crazy about her. She loved me and was  a mentor to me and was the best grandmother on the planet," said Boone in a telephone interview from her home in Los Angeles.

Boone's mother-in-law was famed singer Rosemary Clooney. Clooney died in 2002 and Boone released a tribute album, Reflections of Rosemary, three years later. The artist will share her thoughts and music in a concert beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Lindenwood University's J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts,  2300 W. Clay St., St. Charles.

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The daughter of pop singer Pat Boone, Debby Boone's musical career began as a teenager and as a family affair. "By the time I was 14 he put all the kids in the family act but it was never his desire or intent that we should ever pursue careers. "He was a '50s dad that wanted his daughters to all get married and raise  kids and stay home," she said.

"But he made a mistake by letting us get a taste of something that a few of us really enjoyed -- we all enjoyed it while we were doing it as a family -- but a couple of us still continue on. I'm really the only one of the four girls who does it as a full-time career."

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Boone's solo career began after two of her sisters got married which signaled the end for the Pat Boone Family Show. As anyone who was listening to radio in the 1970s will tell you, Boone's breakout hit was 1977's You Light Up My Life. The song spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard music chart -- a record for that time.

You Light Up My Life, written by Joe Brooks, was originally recorded for a movie by the same name. Boone was brought in to record another version of the song for release as a single. "It was just a matter of really good timing," she said.

"I didn't have a clue that it would ever be heard let alone what did happen. I just thought -- well, great -- this is my first opportunity to go and be a solo recording artist. I'll see what that's like."

Boone said the song changed her life dramatically. "I suddenly had a full-blown career which was exciting and scary and I really felt like I hadn't prepared for it even though I'd been on the road and had a lot of experience performing with my sisters. I had never done anything out there on my own. It was kinda flying by the seat of my pants for the first several years."

The huge success of Light proved difficult to follow up. In the 1980s she turned to country music and scored another No. 1 hit with Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again. Boone would later move to Contemporary Christian music. "That was not a career choice. I love that music. It meant a lot to me," she said.

Boone has also had a successful career in musical theater and as a writer of children's books.

In 1979 Boone married Gabriel Ferrer, son of Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. Clooney would be very influential in Boone's life, serving as mother-in-law and musical mentor.

For Reflections of Rosemary, Boone wasn't interested in just recording a collection of hits. "What I was able to do was choose songs that she performed that would also tie into a story or choose songs that maybe she recorded that people would never really associate with her," she said. "But again would enable me to, through the liner notes or onstage when I talk about them, shine a light on a very personal side of Rosemary.

"It's been a gratifying, satisfying project."

Tickets for Debby Boone's performance cost $24.50, $32.50, $38.50 and $42.50 and are available at the box office, 636-949-4433. For more information visit http://www.lindenwood.edu/center/.

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