Connie
Connie started on her path much later than Shirall and Victor. She sang around the house and joined John Denver and The Carpenters as they played on the stereo. She also loved to sing with records that her parents had of famous musicals.
When in the latter part of the 10th grade, while coming home from a wedding, a high school friend who sang heard Connie singing along to a Barry Manilow tune and was quite enthusiastically surprised. Connie decided to try out for the ensemble choir at her school and did not get chose. She quietly slipped into girls choir and continued to explore the whole music realm. One day at an assembly for the music department, her chorus teacher had her sing a solo. Up until that point she had been more known for academics and shocked most people, not the least of whom was her own sister, Linda.
During her junior year her choir teacher placed her as the lead in the school’s production of the musical, “Anything Goes”.
After singing through the rest of high school and a little at Florida Southern College, Connie got married and moved on to the focus of starting a family. After about five years of not singing her husband asked her to sing for a small worship he was doing as part of a seminary class. This was the beginning of Connie’s focus on Christian music. Due to the time lapse she had to work hard to get her voice back into shape. At that time she came to appreciate the gift she had been given. It made her very aware how easily we can lose special gifts God gives to us when we fail to use them.
People made many comments about Connie pursuing something professionally in music and she laughed it off at first. After a while she began to see it as a possible direction for her voice. At the time it really seemed totally unrealistic so she basically told everyone she would put any idea of that dream on hold until the kids were grown.
As it happened – around the time Connie met Shirall and Victor her sons were getting close to being adults. As always, God’s timing is perfect.