Present autographed guitar to retiring UM chancellor
OXFORD,
Miss. – Country music superstar Vince Gill and three Ole Miss alumni
helped raise more than $95,000 Friday night for student scholarships at
the University of Mississippi.
Also performing during the concert before a packed house were Mary Donnelly Haskell, Bryan Kennedy and Rivers Rutherford.
Proceeds,
sponsorships and gifts from the sold-out performance at UM’s Gertrude
C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts benefit the Ole Miss First and
the Ole Miss Women’s Council scholarship programs.
“We’re
absolutely thrilled that some of our most talented alumni would
generously donate their time to raise money for scholarships at their
alma mater,” Chancellor Robert Khayat said. “Vince Gill came to Ole
Miss to help us because of his and Amy Grant’s affection for Ole Miss
graduates Karen and Bruce Moore. We hope that Vince will become an
honorary Ole Miss alum.”
In that spirit following the concert, Khayat gave Gill a navy jacket with “Ole Miss” emblazoned in red across the front and back. When Gill donned the jacket, the appreciative crowd stood, clapped, cheered and whistled.
Gill then gave Khayat a guitar signed by himself and the concert’s other performers. The gift rendered speechless UM’s retiring and normally eloquent chancellor.
The Ole Miss First and Ole Miss Women’s Council scholarship programs provide scholarships to deserving UM students. They are unique in that recipients are assigned a mentor during their time at the university.
Haskell, Kennedy and Rutherford opened the concert at 8 p.m., and Gill performed at 9.
Since graduating from Ole Miss in 1981, Haskell has enjoyed success as a singer, actor, author and illustrator. She is noted for her performances at such venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and with symphony orchestras across the country. Her albums include “Power of the Cross” and “Just In Time for Christmas.”
Kennedy has written six hits for country singer Garth Brooks, including three No. 1 radio hits: “Good Ride Cowboy,” “Beaches of Cheyenne” and “American Honky Tonk Bar Association.”
He attended Ole Miss on a football scholarship but left in 1983, just six hours short of graduation. He returned 20 years later and completed a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
A piano scholarship enabled Rutherford to earned an English degree from Ole Miss in 1989. A country music writer since 1996, he has penned several No. 1 hits, including “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You” by Brooks and Dunn, “If You Ever Stop Loving Me” by Montgomery Gentry, “When I Get Where I’m Going” by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton, and “Real Good Man” by Tim McGraw. In 2005, Rutherford released his first solo CD, “Just Another Coaster.”
Gill, one of the most popular and most recorded singers of the past quarter-century, achieved his breakthrough in 1990 with “When I Call Your Name,” which won both the Country Music Association’s Single of the Year award and a Grammy for Best Country Male Vocal Performance.
Since then, Gill has won 17 CMA honors, including Song of the Year four times, and 20 Grammy awards. He also sold more than 26 million albums and has been embraced as duet partner by dozens of artists, from Reba McEntire to Dolly Parton to Barbra Streisand.
Last night’s concert was sponsored by Newks and Rebel Rags of Oxford, FlagStar Construction of Brandon and BancorpSouth of Tupelo.
For more information visit the Ole Miss First and Ole Miss Women’s Council scholarship programs .