GRAND OLE OPRY INVITES FORMER LOCAL SINGER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ten years ago, Lisa Lauryn was fronting a country band at the old Hitchin' Post bar in Cape Girardeau. Tuesday afternoon, she takes the stage at the Grand Ole Opry.

Actually, this won't be the former Lutesville resident's first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. At age 20 she finished second to the Sweethearts of the Rodeo in a talent contest held there.

"But this is my first time being invited," she enthuses.

Lauryn, whose mother and stepfather live in Marble Hill, sings regularly with the band on the General Jackson showboat at Opryland in Nashville. Someone from the Opry heard her and extended the invitation to perform at country music's most hallowed venue.

"I was extremely thrilled," Lauryn said. "I called my husband and my mother. I really couldn't believe it."

Lauryn is married to Brian Crabtree, a former undercover narcotics detective who is a security and communications manager at a large store in Nashville.

Her mother is Margaret Walker, who lives in Marble Hill with Lauryn's stepfather, Homer. Lauryn's mother sang opera in Little Rock and Oakland, and later popular songs and jazz professionally under the name Vicki Holiday.

"I took after my mama," Lauryn says.

Her father, Wynn Blackburn, wrote Webb Pierce's "I Wont Be Crying Anymore."

Lauryn sang for her classmates during P.E. and at recess from the time she was 10. Growing up in Memphis, she won many talent contests and beauty pageants, including one that named her the "Cinderella Girl" for the state of Arkansas.

She lived in Cape Girardeau briefly while still in her teens, and later in Jackson before joining her mother in the former Lutesville, now Marble Hill.

She also performed at the Double Nickel in Sikeston, and after moving to Nashville was on a 45-day USO tour of the Far East. In 1988 she reached the finals of the "You Can Be a Star" competition on TNN.

The road has taken her to Branson as well, where she was featured at Presley's Country Music Show in 1991, at the gospel and contemporary Christian Celebration Theater a year later.

Her most recent Branson stint was as a member of BLT, a trio that opened and sang backup for the Osmond Brothers.

Besides singing regularly at Opryland now, she also has landed a spot in November on the bill at the Bluebird Cafe, Nashville's premier showcase for songwriters.

Lauryn's ultimate goal is to win the female country music artist of the year award, the entertainer of the year award and to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

"I probably want to sing for the rest of my life," she said. "I've got a desire to be a big ham."

She already knows what she'll wear at the Grand Ole Opry: a gold studded jacket ala Marty Stewart, black pants and studded boots.

She'll sing a Patty Loveless song and the Eagles' "Desperado," the same tune she sang 10 years ago in the talent contest. "I'll tell a little story about that," she said.