RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Monday, March 3, 2008

Cousin Micki

First, let me say that I WILL be posting photos as soon as we get back home. I will have to scan in the photos before I can put them on the BLOG. All the new photos will have captions so you will know who the folks are in the photos and their relationship to the Sbaraglias. Now, on to other things.

Regarding Cousin Micki (Martha Evangelista). Micki's stage name was Micki Evans, and she kept that name, and I suppose had it changed legally to Micki Evans since all her mail comes to her at that name. I'll have to ask her to be sure she is legally Micki Evans, but I did ask her if she even used Martha Evangelista, and she said no. So, on to what I wrote to remind myself about my recent visit with Micki. I had written about her before.

Micki has always been on a pedestal for me because she is a family member who was actually in show business. You could say she was an American Idol back in the 50s because she won on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts – a show sort of like “Idol”.

Well, we visited her recently (real recently) and she is a hoot. What a character! She’s still on that pedestal, by the way. Micki told me so many stories of her early life, and her life as an entertainer, that I’m not sure I can write about all of them.

Should I publish the picture of her and Elvis – yes, the real Elvis, as in Elvis Presley, not an impersonator, and not the one that keeps showing up at McDonald’s. She knew Elvis when he was a young man, before he got old and fat.

Mick also worked with Gene Autry (Back in the Saddle Again) and she was in the Grand Ole Opry for several weeks in Nashville. She has written many songs, and is getting residuals from at least two of them. A couple of her songs were pirated by other singers, but she’s okay with that. She told me that all of her life has been directed by God, and the ups and downs of the entertainment portion of her life were as God would have them. The good, the bad and the ugly were all God directed, and she’s happy with her life.

She is 83 years old. Her back hurts her most of the time, but she is still very energetic. Amazingly so.

She told me of another of Daisy’s children – one that I had completely forgotten because she died when she was a little girl. That child was Mary. Mary was only 6 when she died, and Micki was close to Mary because of their birth order.

So, here is the way Aunt Daisy had her children: Ruth (several new pictures available of her), Hannah, Micki, Mary, Esther, David, Grace, Betty.

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