Singer Ava Barber entertained millions of viewers in the 1970’s on the Lawrence Welk Show.
Her talent was nurtured in East Tennessee with appearances on The Bonnie Lou & Buster Show.
My mother was an avid fan of The Lawrence Welk show,” said Barber, who was a teenager at the time. “I'd gone as far as I could in Knoxville. We kept up with everybody on the show and Lynn Anderson was on there and she had the big hit, Rose Garden, and then she left."
Ava says her mom encouraged her to send a letter and music to The Lawrence Welk Show.
"I said 'I'll never hear from him’, and she says 'Well, I'll write the letter and you write it in your handwriting and send your little local recordings you've done and demos,” said Barber.
Show.
' , and she said 'I can't let you do that', and he said 'Listen lady, I got a letter from him, I want to talk to him'."
Soon after, Barber was meeting Lawrence Welk at a golf tournament in Nashville. He hired her right then and there.
go wrong. It's running too smooth’."
Her instinct was right. While she was on a plane headed for California, the camera operators' union went on strike. She arrived in California with an invitation to perform on a show that had ceased produciton.
"He didn't know whether to send me back or let me stay there. He said,’I"m just going to send you back there (to Knoxville) and I said 'well, that's it’."
The strike didn’t last too long and Ava finally landed back in California and on The Lawrence Welk Show.
"In February of 1974 I went out there and did my first show and he hired me right there so it was really a miracle. It's something I'll never forget."
Ava says the cast and crew became a second family to her after they got to know her.
“At first when somebody joins a show or whatever, the other cast members say 'well, who's he going to let go?’ or whatever. But once you get to know everybody, it was like a second family,” she said. “ I enjoyed just doing the show because it was so easy, it was something I loved to do and I think when you work at something you love, it's a lot of fun.”
Barber says she had no formal contract with Lawrence Welk, just a handshake, and stayed on the show for nearly a decade singing mostly country music and Big Band era styles. She also had a hit record in 1978, titled Bucket to the South.
"I feel like I expanded my horizons learning a lot of stuff that I couldn't learn when I was in Knoxville by being on a big show like that," said Barber.
Ava came back to Knoxville in 1982 with dreams of pursuing a record career. She and her husband, who is a musician, toured all over the country and also operated a theater in Pigeon Forge in the 1990’s.
Today, Ava still performs at churches and at the Dawg Patch in Maryville on Saturdays. She also stays busy at the Steamboat Deli in Powell where she is part owner.
gets recognized by fans of the show
“It's one thing that I can do that was easy for me. I love singing for people and entertaining,” Ava said.