By Paige Gurgainers
Local icon Dawn Glass may be well known across the parish and more specifically as an endearing face walking the halls in her high heels at Minden Medical Center where she has been the Patient Representative for 45 years. She makes rounds daily ensuring patients are receiving the best care possible and serves as their voice and advocate until every need is satisfied.
But what many may not know is that Glass also used to travel the country singing and used to keep close company with well-known artists such as George Jones, Claude King and more than one Johnny, including Cash, Horton and Paycheck. Knowing the eccentric background of each of these men, many could only guess the stories that Glass has to tell.
Well, she had the opportunity to share some of those at the Dorcheat Museum’s last Night at the Museum event held this past Monday, November 4, and the house was packed. Although Glass could not really fathom why. “I just want to cry because I don’t even know how to thank you enough for being here. I just can’t figure out, and with all my heart I mean this, I just can’t figure out why you came,” she said. “But I guess I think you want me to talk about how I got – where am I anyway?- traveling all around and what God’s plan was for me.”
Glass reflected on her time growing up in Dubberly, attending school in Minden and her love for performing since before she could remember. She went on to compete in several talent shows, but says she never won. Her big break stemmed from being featured on a local news station during one of their segments. She then went on to make commercials, one of those being about pantyhose, which is fitting if you know Glass.
Before she knew it, she was booking gigs and traveling across the country. “I learned a really important message,” said Glass. “In my time, girl singers weren’t really welcome because they caused too much trouble. Imagine that, but they didn’t have to worry about me because I still believed in Santa Claus.”
Glass performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride – a radio turned television show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, wildly popular from 1940s to 1960s and has been accredited to launching the careers of some of the greatest names in American country and western music.
Through her travels she learned just “how glorious the world is,” but she also grew homesick quite often and recalled that every time she would get close to making it big, she would return home.
“Every night my show got better and better because by the end of the week, I was going to get to come home,” said Glass. “I just couldn’t be still, and I would sing my heart out. Well, I got all kinds of offers. They thought I was a very shrewd business woman because I would say ‘no’ I got to go back to Louisiana. They thought I was playing them trying to get more money and more stuff.”
Glass knew it was God’s plan for her to end up back home, and she is still grateful she gets to sing every chance she gets. She closed out the Night at the Museum event by singing two songs, one written by R&B/Country songwriter Jerry Strickland. And every attendee left with a hug and an “I love you.”
The Dorcheat Museum may not have any other featured guest speakers this year, but will be hosting their Holiday Trail of Lights Hayride Tour through downtown Minden on Dec. 14 from 6 to 9 p.m.
