Category: 2018 Festival

Isaac Kenneth

Isaac Kenneth will be performing at the Cherry Blossom Kickoff Concert on Wednesday, April 25th at the Marshfield Community Center. 

“A smooth, rich baritone that pays tribute to influences like Joe Nichols and Josh Turner, and roots that anchor deep in passionate love of God and family are key elements in Isaac Kenneth’s singing/songwriting style. Meaningful lyrics threaded with an “Old soul” respect for people, alongside catchy, handwritten melodies, are all facets of the refreshing new sound he brings to the 2018 world of country music. Isaac has lived in the rolling hills of Webster county for 16 years, and was born the third oldest in a family of nine kids. This talented young artist has twice been nominated KTTS Best Local Male Country Artist.”

Marion Ross

Marion Ross will be a recipient of the 2018 Ella Dickey Literacy award. The Cherry Blossom Festival will be a stop on her book tour and she will be our featured guest and speaker at the annual Cherry Blossom Tea on Thursday, April 26 at 2:30 p.m. at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church. She will sign and sell books at this event. 

John Schneider

John Schneider will perform at the Cherry Blossom Festival kickoff concert on Wednesday, April 25th at the Marshfield Community Center. The concert will begin with a preview show at 6:30 p.m. featuring the Peterson’s from Branson. Tickets go on sale on Presidents Day. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Randy Travis Foundation. 

 

Cora Sue Collins Nace

Coming to Hollywood at the age of 3, Cora Sue Collins became a top child actress in films before she was 4 years old.  A chance audition at Universal landed the three year old portraying the lead role in THE UNEXPECTED FATHER (1931),  which was followed by a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios.  For 13 years Cora Sue played in legendary films with legendary co-stars and directors. During a period when child actors (headed by star Shirley Temple) were in great demand, Cora Sue reigned supreme.  So much so that Greta Garbo handpicked her to play the child queen in QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933).  Her many films include ANNA KARENINA, SMILIN’ THROUGH, NAUGHTY MARIETTA, EVELYN PRENTICE, MAD LOVE, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO, BLOOD AND SAND and WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF.  She was popular on radio, toured with the Broadway show JUNIOR MISS and was a headliner entertaining the troops during World War II. She served as a child ambassador at MGM and worked with many important personalities of the day. Though she kept her ties to the industry throughout her life, she chose to leave the business by the age of 18 and moved on to a rich and healthy life which included raising three children. Today she splits her time between Paris, France and Los Angeles and enjoys embracing and sharing her achievements of the past and present.

 

Richard LaMotte

Senior Master Sergeant Richard LaMotte spoke on “Serving our Nation’s Leaders at 41,000 Ft” at the 2017 festival and also sang a powerful song during the 2017 State Dinner. 

Richard will be returning again to the 2018 festival and will moderate a panel on the “Legends of Television and Screen”.

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Charlotte Stewart

Charlotte StewartCharlotte Stewart was born in Yuba City, California on February 27, 1941. After completing her acting studies in Pasadena, California, Stewart began her professional television career with guest starring roles in a variety of shows including My Three Sons, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Waltons and McMillan and Wife. Her big break came in 1974 when she was cast as the cherished schoolteacher, Miss Beadle, in Little House on the Prairie. From 1974 until 1978, Stewart portrayed the tenderhearted governess in the fictional town of Walnut Grove. After her time on the popular show was up, Stewart moved on to edgier projects. Working with filmmaker David Lynch, Charlotte made additional guest appearances in Eraserhead (1977) and the controversial hit television series, Twin Peaks. As her career in show business continued, Stewart had featured roles in Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Desert Son (1999), Puppy Love (2000) and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001). Other television appearances have included Coach (1989-2002), Life Goes On (1992), Dark Angel (1994), Beverly Hills 90210 (1995), Cold Case (2005), The Office (2007) and The Inner Circle (2008).

Never one to forget her “Prairie” roots, Charlotte continues making appearances several times a year at various Little House on the Prairie historical sites for educational events and gatherings of fans. She has been a frequent visitor to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in the real life Walnut Grove, Minnesota as well as Green Bay, Wisconsin’s Heritage Hills, Mumford’s Genesee Country Village, Keystone, South Dakota, Pinecrest Historical Village in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and celebrity autograph shows in California and New Jersey.

In June 2016, Charlotte celebrated the release of her hugely anticipated autobiography, “Little House in the Hollywood Hills; A Bad Girl’s Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary X and Me”

Charlotte currently resides in Northern California with her husband, Michael, maintaining the demanding schedule of producing her famed “Beadle Bags” which she hand-sews for fans, using a portion of the proceeds to support her breast cancer charity.

 

Click here to link to “Miss Beadle and Me” article by Charlotte Stewart. Includes link to purchase her book, “Little House in the Hollywood Hills; A Bad Girl’s Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary X and Me”. 

Margaret Kerry

Margaret Kerry is probably best known for a beguiling character that was only 3 1/2 inches tall.  Kerry was the model for Disney’s enchanting fairy Tinker Bell. Chosen for both her dancing and pantomime abilities, Kerry started in show business when she was only 4 in Midsummer Night’s Dream playing, in an interesting twist of fate, a little fairy.  Kerry later worked as a dancer and actor in three of the Our Gang comedy shorts and played the role of Eddie Cantor’s teenage daughter in the film If You Knew Susie.  Besides Kerry’s work in movies and television, she appeared on The Andy Griffith Show, she is also known for her work as a voiceover performer with a wide range of character voices.  Kerry also worked in radio as a producer, writer and host of “What’s Up Weekly” on KKLA-FM Los Angeles.  Tinker Bell Talks is the official Margaret Kerry web site and has more pictures and information on Margaret’s fascinating life. 

Margaret Kelly

 

Alison Arngrim

Alison-ArngrimNew York Times Best Selling author of “Confessions of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated”, Alison Arngrim is best known to viewers world-wide for her portrayal of the incredibly nasty “Nellie Oleson” on the much loved, long running hit television series “Little House On The Prairie,” and continues to amuse audiences through her many film, television, stage and multi-media appearances.

Her one woman show “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch”, which started at Club Fez in New York in 2002, has now become a world-wide phenomenon, having been performed to packed houses in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Green Bay, San Francisco, Seattle, and in France, where Alison performs entirely in French to standing room only crowds in her all French version titled: “Confessions d’une Garce de La Prairie” and “La Malle aux Tresors de Nellie Oleson.”

As a stand-up comedian, Alison has headlined at nightclubs such as the Laugh Factory, the Comedy Store and the Improv in Los Angeles; as well as the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York and assorted comedy venues all across the United States and Canada.

Alison has mocked her status as an “ex-child star” on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, during their month long parody, “Hollywood Survivor” and continues to be a frequent interview subject on everything from “A&E”, “E! Entertainment”, “TV Land” and “VH-1”, to CNN and the Travel Channel.   The TV Land network honored her undying image as TV’s worst bitch, by declaring her the winner of their 2006 award for, “Character Most Desperately In Need Of A Time Out”.

In her spare time, she takes tourists on the rollicking comedy outing, “Nasty Nellie’s Tour of Hollywood”, (featured at Dearly Departed Tours), where she simultaneously enlightens and amuses passengers with behind the scenes tales from both Hollywood history and her own life.

Never one to forget her “Prairie” roots, Alison enjoys making appearances several times a year at various “Little House on the Prairie” historical sites for educational events and gatherings of fans. She has been a frequent visitor to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in the real life Walnut Grove, Minnesota as well as Green Bay, Wisconsin’s Heritage Hills, Mumford’s Genesee Country Village, Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri and many, many others.

She currently serves as California Chair, National Spokesperson and Founding Board Member on the National Advisory Board of The National Association to Protect Children, or PROTECT.org, fighting to give children a legal and political voice in the war against child abuse.   As an activist for the improvement of child protection laws, she has spoken before the California Senate and worked on legislative and political campaigns in several states, including Virginia and New York, in addition to PROTECT’s work on federal legislation in Washington, D.C.

Alison currently lives somewhere in the wilds of Tujunga with her husband of over twenty years, musician Bob Schoonover, (from the rock and roll band “Catahoula”) and their evil cat, Clarice. She takes pride in the fact that so many people enjoyed hating her as a girl and is more than happy to give them the opportunity to do so in the future.

Mary Jean Eisenhower

 

Mary Jean Eisenhower

Mary Jean Eisenhower was born in Washington, D.C. during her grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first term in office as President of the United States. She was christened in the Blue Room of the White House and grew up in nearby Gettysburg, PA, in a home with property abutting the Eisenhower Farm, where President Eisenhower eventually retired.

She attended several schools in Pennsylvania until her father, John, was named as US Ambassador to Belgium. She lived in Brussels with her family from shortly after her grandfather’s death in 1969 through 1972.

Mary Eisenhower is Chairman Emeritus of People to People International, which was founded September 11, 1956 by her grandfather. Mary says that she joined PTPI hoping to carry on her grandfather’s dream, but that now it has become a dream of her own. President Eisenhower founded PTPI with the financial backing of his friend Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, who insisted it be headquartered in Kansas City.

Mary Eisenhower established the PTPI Friendship Fund in 1999 following an inspirational visit to an orphanage in Morocco. The fund is designed as a way for people to help the friends and facilities they visit throughout the world and to help the PTPI Chapter network assist each other.

To date, the fund has provided assistance to causes such as the Global Humanitarian Eradication of Landmines; Children’s Mercy Hospital in London, England; earthquake relief in India; disaster relief to victims of September 11, 2001 and their families; support of schools for the underprivileged in China and Sri Lanka; a home for leukemia victims and their families in Cuba; Operation International Children; New Horizons (a library project in Viet Nam); The Survivors of Rwanda; Japan Tsunami Relief; Haiti, and Friends of Egypt, among others. One-hundred percent of all funds received through the organization go to the efforts and projects as specified by the donors.

Following September 11, 2001, Mary’s focus intensified toward getting young people from around the world together to learn about each other and conflict management. Her vision resulted in “Peace Camp 2003: An Evolution of Thought and Action” and “The Global Peace Initiative.” Both efforts have brought people from diverse areas, more than 30 nationalities, together in Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, to discuss issues and reach a better understanding of their unique and individual cultures. The program remains active today.

Highlighted awards of Mary’s are: the Knight of Peace Award from the International University in Assisi, Italy; the Medal of Honor from the Slovak Republic; The Consular Corps Award of Excellence; The Harry S. Truman Award for Public Service; Friendship Ambassador from The Peoples’ Republic of China, among others. Eisenhower has received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Schiller International University, Park University and William Jewell College.

Mary is currently continuing her humanitarian work through, Outreach International, a humanitarian organization dedicated to alleviating poverty throughout the world.

For more information, please visit www.mjeisenhower.com.

 

Affiliations:

People to People Ambassador Programs
Spokane, Washington
Humanitarian Ambassador
Member, Advisory Board

The Eisenhower Foundation
Abilene, Kansas
Corporate Secretary
Member of the Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Selection Committee: Museum Design

Snowball Express (Families of the Fallen)
Dallas, Texas
Member, Advisory Board

People to People International
Chairman Emeritus
Member, Board of Directors
Member, Board of Trustees

Sister Cities International
Washington, D. C.
Member, Advisory Board

Rocky Top Ranch (Equestrian Therapy)
Keller, Texas
Member, Advisory Board

Boy Scouts of America
Washington, D.C.
Member, Advisory Board