MARTON woman Anne George will soon have her own place among the "stars" ? the stars of traditional country music, that is.
That will happen early in September when Mrs George and two other "good ole Kiwi gals" are inducted in the National Traditional Country Music Association's "Old Time Hall of Fame" in Iowa, USA.
Anne along with Ginny Peters, from Otorohanga, and Helen Braithwaite, from Manaia, Taranaki, will be first New Zealanders to gain places in NTCMA's Hall of Fame.
The honour is one that has come out of the blue following the visit to Marton in January this year of NTCMA president Bob Everhart.
In New Zealand shooting film for Bus Stop ? a television series with a country music theme and featuring small, rural towns around the world ? Mr Everhart stopped in at Marton's own annual country music festival at Anniversary weekend.
It was not just Mrs George's enthusiasm for "traditional" country music of the 1950s that impressed Mr Everhart but her passion for promoting country music through the Marton Country Music Festival.
The letter to Mrs George from NTCMA advising of her impending induction into the Hall of Fame said the award was "recognition of the high status you have achieved as a performer of classic country music and festival promoter in New Zealand. It is that achievement that our rural folks wish to honour."
And that's a fundamental difference between the NTCMA and other country halls of fame: It's not just about performance and fame but the work that goes in to keeping country music alive in small, rural communities.
The NTCMA is a relatively small, non-profit organisation with about 2000 active members almost all of them "rural folks" ? "farmers, ranchers, down home country people and small town folks that have a deep and abiding respect for America's great traditional country music."
But when Anne George takes her place in the Hall in Fame she will be among such celebrities as Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Burl Ives, Hank Locklin, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and two of her own favourites from the traditional country music era, Tex Ritter and Slim Whitman.
It was those two singers who first fired Anne George's enthusiasm for classic country music back in the days when she was just a young girl helping her parents milk cows on a Pungarehu (Taranaki) dairy farm.
"I will certainly be in some big company," she said. "And that will be a huge honour? not just for me but for li'l ol' Marton."
The induction will coincide with the 32nd annual National Old Time Country and Bluegrass Festival and Contest, an "acoustic only" event featuring 600 performers on 10 stages during the week-long festival.
And, as one would expect, Mrs George will be among the performers along with about a dozen other Kiwi acts invited for this year's festival.
While her American odyssey will begin in Iowa, the whole trip will be a six-week-long affair which will include, among other things, a visit the absolute mecca of country, Nashville, and that other Hall of Fame.
"I'm intending to see it all and do it all," Mrs George said.
Marton country artist honoured in US
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