Department of Parks
“An Evening with Rosemary Clooney” Ticket Sales Begin

HENDERSON, Ky. – Ticket sales have begun for “An Evening with Rosemary Clooney,” a Chautauqua performance and cocktail party hosted by The Friends of Audubon on Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 6 p.m. in the Audubon Museum.

Tickets are $50 per person and can be purchased at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson. The event will be a fundraiser for the Audubon Theater Project and will feature an actress portraying Kentucky-native and Grammy Award winning artist Rosemary Clooney. Live music, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, prize raffles and an inspirational film montage of Clooney’s career are all part of this event honoring one of Kentucky’s most treasured entertainers.

Clooney was born in Maysville, Ky., in 1928. In 1945, she and her sister Betty won a spot on Cincinnati, Ohio’s radio station WLW as singers. After her first recordings with Tony Pastor’s big band, she broke out on her own with a hit single “Come On-a My House” in 1951. From duets with Marlene Dietrich to her role in the 1954 movie “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, Clooney was always in good company throughout her career. By 1956, she had her own half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show “The Rosemary Clooney Show.”

Clooney, the constant artist, continued to perform even late into her life. She sang a duet of “Green Eyes” with Barry Manilow in his 1994 album, “Singin’ with the Big Bands.” She guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama “ER” (starring her nephew, George Clooney) in 1995; she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In 1996 she appeared on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio program. In 1999, Clooney founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in Maysville, Ky., to benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney’s first film, “The Stars are Singing,” premiered in 1953. She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and died later that year.

For more information, call the park at (270) 827-1893.

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The Kentucky State Park System is composed of 51 state parks plus an interstate park shared with Virginia. The Department of Parks, an agency of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, operates 17 resort parks with lodges -- more than any other state. For more information on Kentucky parks, visit our website at http://www.parks.ky.gov