© 2000 The Amory Advertiser. Reproduced With Permission.

"The biggest and best concert yet" is how Amory native Sam Haskell, III, describes the Stars Over Mississippi benefit concert set for October 7, 2000.

Award winning motion picture, television, and recording superstar, Dolly Parton, will headline the next Stars Over Mississippi concert in Amory this fall.

Parton's participation in the popular North Mississippi bi-annual event was announced today by Haskell who is Executive Vice President and Worldwide Head of Television for the William Morris Agency, Inc. of Beverly Hills, California.

Set to host this year's event will be Academy Award winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, award-winning talk show host and recording artist, Kathie Lee Gifford, and the star of the NBC hit comedy, "Suddenly Susan," actress Brooke Shields.

In a prepared statement, Haskell said, "The 2000 concert is going to be our biggest show ever! The people of North Mississippi will not get to see a show of this magnitude anywhere else in the country, as Dolly Parton's appearance will be her only live U.S. concert from now until the end of the year!"

Joining this spectacular quartet of stars will be "Stars Over Mississippi" regulars: Emmy winner Debbie Allen, Tony winner Nell Carter, Emmy winner Gary Collins and former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley, "Touched by an Angel" star John Dye, actor Gary Grubbs, former Miss Mississippi Mary Donnelly Haskell, singer Guy Hovis, Grammy Award winners Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Broadway's Laurie Gayle Stephensen, singer Marsha Tindall, and Foundation Spokesperson Christy May.

With a career that has spanned over 30 years, Dolly Parton has received four Grammy Awards, nine Country Music Association Awards, including Best Female Vocalist, Entertainer of the Year, and in 1999, induction into the Country Music Association Hall of Fame.

In addition, she has received three People's Choice Awards, an American Music Award, and an Oscar nomination for the hit motion picture, "Nine to Five." Dolly's number one hit singles have included "Jolene," "Here You Come Again," "Baby I'm Burning," "Nine to Five," "Coat of Many Colors," "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers, and of course, one of the greatest songs ever recorded, "I Will Always Love You," – written by Dolly Parton as a tribute to her former partner, singer Porter Wagoner.

Dolly's feature film credits include "Nine to Five," "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Rhinestone," "Straight Talk," and the award winning "Steel Magnolias."

Her autobiography, "My Life and Other Unfinished Business," was a bestseller and her television musical specials and movies have all been top rated and have received rave reviews.

"Stars Over Mississippi" is the primary fundraising arm of the Mary Kirkpatrick Haskell Scholarship Foundation, named for Sam Haskell's mother who was the public school nurse in Amory for 20 years and Mississippi's first school nurse practitioner.

To date, the Haskell Foundation has raised over one million dollars to help deserving Mississippi children attend college.

Haskell is hoping for another sell-out concert with the lineup he has put together. "I want it to be packed in so that more and more students can get scholarships and go to college," he said Monday from his office in Beverly Hills. "My goal is for there to be enough money in the foundation for kids to be taken care of for years and years to come," he said.

Haskell noted that corporate sponsorships for the Stars Over Mississippi concert defray the thousands of dollars of expenses associated with the production of a concert of this magnitude. That allows all proceeds from ticket sales to go directly into the foundation and thereby into scholarships.

Northwest Airlines is the primary corporate sponsor again this year. Any business interested in becoming a corporate sponsor may contact Steve Greenhaw.

"I think this will be one of the most popular concerts ever," Haskell said about the 2000 concert. He had promised the "Millennium" concert to be one to top all others and has seemingly put the package together to make it a reality.

For information on tickets, volunteering and patron and corporate sponsorships, contact:

Tickets – Judy Holman at 877-677-8279 (MSSTARZ) toll free, or 662-256-4763 or 662-257-9827. For volunteer information, call Dot Forbus at 662-256-3626.

For patron program and corporate sponsorship information call Steve and Cynthia Greenhaw at 662-256-7312.