Monday, January 29, 2007
"Call From A Starr"

Stupefaction of Jason Heath-Fitzgerald:

Who would have ever imagined that this soon after my "Surviving The Ice of 2007" BLOG, I would already have something exciting to write about. The following BLOG is about one of the most exciting moments of my life, this far.

Many of you already know about my call from Kay Starr and I've received several emails from folks with questions like: 'Why did she call you?' and 'How did she get your phone number?' I'll explain, but first a little back story...

For those of you who don't know who Kay Starr is, you can visit my fan site I created about her at www.KayStarr.net, I'm very proud of that website and I'm sad to say that it is only one of two Kay Starr websites.

Kay Starr was born on July 21st, 1922 in Doughtery, Oklahoma. She started out singing in contests in Dallas and eventually Memphis, Tennessee. She landed a spot on local radio in Memphis, then was heard by bandleader Joe Venuti, who talked to Kay's parents about hiring her to be his 'female vocalist' at the age of 15. She worked with Joe for two years, then she briefly worked with the legendary Glenn Miller in 1939, during which time she recorded her first record: "Baby Me"/"Love With A Capitol You". In the forties Kay worked with the likes of Wingy Malone and Charlie Barnett then in 1947 she was signed to Capitol records. Some of Kay's best known songs are: "Wheel of Fortune", "Side By Side", "Half Of A Photograph" and "Rock & Roll Waltz". For a complete bio on Kay visit click here. Kay is now 84 years old and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Last Friday, January 26th, I went to work a bit hung over from karaoke the night before at a local hetero bar in Old Town McAlester, work was nothing special and I left around 2pm to run errands around town. I managed to stay busy enough that I didn't check my email until after Matthew had got home from work and we were both settled into our computer room. I have still not gotten caught up on websites or answering emails since the ice storm, so there are lots of messages piled up in my in box, but there was a new message from Bill Lorance, who is a friend of mine that lives in Oklahoma City and also my only link to Kay Starr. Kay and Bill have been friends for years.

Anyway, Bill's email said that he'd received a call from 'Katie', which is how he refers to Kay, and she'd asked him for my phone number! When I read that line of the email, I do believe my heart stopped. Kay Starr wanted my phone number! I quickly told Matthew, then I proceeded to freak out and tell Matthew that there was NO way I could EVER talk to Kay Starr on the phone. He told me to calm down and tried to convince me that I would be fine if she did actually call. Then he looked up Kay's address on the Internet to find out what her area code might be, so we might recognize it if it showed up on my caller ID.

While we were discussing this, the phone rang and I think I about shit my pants. I reached over and picked it up to look at the caller ID and then breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that it was my mother. I answered the phone and told my mother the story and proceeded to tell her that there was NO way I could EVER talk to Kay Starr on the phone. She told me to calm down also, then told me that I'd spent my whole life bullshitting people cause I am just like my grandmother and that this should be not different for me than anything else, but I tried to explain to her this was different and I just hoped that Kay wouldn't call at all.

Several minutes later I got off of the phone with my mother promising to let her know if I heard from Kay. Matthew told me that he was hungry and heading down to Roseannas to eat, so I decided to go into the laundry room and started putting some clothes into the washer, just to get my mind off of the possible phone call. Outside the laundry room window I could hear the tires of the jeep pulling off the gravel of our drive on to the street, then as I was opening up the cabinet over the washer to reach for the bottle of laundry detergent, my phone rang. I briefly froze with my hand suspended in air reaching out for the detergent. It was 7:48pm. It rang again and I convinced myself to reach into my jeans pocket and pull out my phone. I looked at the sub LCD screen and the caller ID read 'PRIVATE'. I knew who it was going to be.

I did it quickly, I opened the phone and pressed 'talk'. Putting it to my ear I said, 'This is Jason'

A woman's voice came to me and said: 'Jason, This is Annie' When I heard that, my vision went blurry and I started breathing heavy; Annie is Kay Starr's personal assistant's name. She continued: 'I have Katie- Kay Starr waiting to speak with you.' I got a little tongue-tied at that point, oh, hell, I'll be honest to everyone- I started to cry. Annie laughed and asked if I was okay- I answered with a 'Yes' then Annie asked if I was ready, I said 'Yes', I pulled myself together, Annie gave me one last laugh and left the line. A brief pause and then there on the line was UNMISTAKABLY the beautiful voice of Kay Starr. 'Jason, how are you?'..... That was when I started moving.

I didn't just move, I walked - the entire time I was on the phone I kept walking. I walked out of the laundry room, through the TV room, into the computer room, back into the TV room, into the dinning room, through the kitchen, into the pool room- there is no telling how many times I walked around and around the pool table. I think at one point I might have walked out onto the back patio, but I'm not sure. At one point towards the beginning of the phone call, I walked back into the TV room and looked towards the laundry room, noticing that I had left the cabinet door open above the washing machine. Out of habit I moved in that direction to close the door. Acting out of habit and not paying attention to what I was doing, I somehow cut my finger open on the metal piece that holds the cabinet door shut.

So, there I am. Talking to Kay Starr on the phone with blood pouring out of my finger onto the laundry room floor. For some reason I didn't grab a towel or anything in the laundry room, instead I went to the kitchen bleeding all the way, where I finally turned on the tap and ran some cold water over the bleeding finger, then I ripped off a paper towel and wrapped around it. The bloodied paper towel is now in my Kay Starr scrapbook in case anyone is wondering.

As far as the call and what we discussed, I'm not sure that I even remember all of it. When we first started talking, Kay could tell I was nervous, and she did something that later I realized was just a diversion tactic to help me calm down. I can still hear her say "Well, how 'bout we talk about you? Tell me about yourself, what do you do in Oklahoma?" She got me to talking about my life in Oklahoma, and it helped me calm a bit and was able to move on to subjects that I more cared to discuss. We talked about her health, we talked about her and Tony Bennet and the time she recorded 'Blue and Sentimental' as a duet with him in 2001. We also talked about my favorite song of hers, 'I Cry By Night' from 1962 and the work that she had put into that album. We talked about Bill Lorance and she explained to me that he was like a brother to her and she asked how I had met Bill. She thanked me for gifts I had sent her and thanked me for being a fan... it was beautiful and she was a beautiful person, she was just as I had imagined she'd be. She laughed a lot and was very laid-back. Her voice was beautiful.

We talked for just shy of half an hour. When she said 'goodbye' and I hung up the phone, I was standing in the middle of the kitchen. It was the first time I'd stopped moving since Kay had first spoken into the phone. I dialed Matthew's phone number and interrupted his dinner- he answered the phone and I basically lost it. He told me he'd be home soon and I hung up. I was alone in the house and I needed to talk and thankfully at that moment I heard Sherri pull into the drive. (Sherri & Harold have been living in their camper next to our house since the ice storm until their home is ready) I met her at the door and she wasn't expecting an emotional gay man waiting for her... boy she got a surprise.

So the rest of the night was interesting, Sherri and Matthew finally got me to have a few drinks.. I calmed down after a few hours. Friends came over, Matthew called my mother, I talked to Greg, I called my grandmother who was about as excited as me... then I had finally had enough cocktails to make myself get some sleep.

I woke in the morning wondering if it was all just a dream.

That's that.

Jason Heath-Fitzgerald