Posts Tagged ‘Henry Givens’

Winner of the 2008 “America’s Got Talent”, Neal E. Boyd, who shared the evening’s bill with soul singer, Al Green, harkened back to his gaffe duriing the winning segment. He chirped,  “My fly was open and when I went on camera, someone alerted me and I turned my back to the audience and zipped it up.”  Belma and Harris-Stowe State University’s Henry Givens boasted that there are now 2,000 students there.  Other faces in the crowd of 632 guests were: Joanne and Chuck Knight; Karen Lorenzini with hub Tim Lane; Neiman-Marcus restaurateur Lucy Bommarito with Tony Mazzola; Peabody Energy’s Fred Palmer with his wife, Gayle; Karen and Jasper Noto; Marsha and Bill Rusnack, who took Clark public and Ameren UE’s prez Tom Voss with his wife, Carol.  The evening’s thunderstorms took its toll here, but Voss said, “Only 17,000 outages and no tornado yet.” (Hello?)

BTW, savvy Linda Martinez of counsel and partner at Bryan Cave, was dubbed “Woman of the Year.” Jan Albus, exec director of Variety, said she anticipated that $1 million will be raised from the event to help children with physical and mental disabilities.  At 6:45 p.m. the hotel’s sirens sounded and flood lights blinked warning that something dangerous might be happening. Some people began running through the lobby. Then, an announcement on the p.a. system informed that all was well and it had been a power failure in the hotel’s system.

GALLERY OF PICTURES AT EVENTS;

While Jim Buford, honcho of the St. Louis Metropolitan Urban League (UL) held the
attention of the 1,200-member audience at the Millenium Hotel, Marc Morial, the UL’s  national prez, took a shot at the U.S. Congress.  Morial pushed President Obama‘s concept of a vote up or vote down on the Health Care Reform bill and then called the lack of action by Congress “troubling.”  Meanwhile, local pols lined up to glad-hand Morial on the 100th anniversary of the New York-based UL. Hizzoner Slay spoke of Morial’s insightful leadership skills, when the two were colleagues with the Conference of Mayors. Morial was then mayor of New Orleans. Slay proclaimed the month of March as “The National Urban League’s Empowering Communities and Changing Lives” month.  Not to be outdone, Charlie Dooley and Alvin Parks did their ceremonial pitches after which Mark A. Kern, chairman, St. Clair County, mused, “I will proclaim it the national Urban League of the Century,” which got a rousing cheer.  Awards were presented for accomplishments in helping people in the African-American community to:  the Rev. Michael T. Jones; Cheryl Heard of Racial Harmony; Citi Corp., Faye Robinson and Habitat for Humanity.  The city unit of the league welcomed to its board Thomas Irwin of Civic Progress at which time some hisses were heard.  On hand for the gambol were:  Col. Bill and Cheryl Young; Susan Buford; U.L. chairman and former Veiled Prophet Stephen C. Jones; Emily Pitts; Melanie DeLeo; Frankie M. Freeman; the Rev. E.D. Shields; Katherine Osborn; Johnny Furr; Dr. Karl Wilson; John and Emma Moten, Jr.,; Henry Givens; Zelema Harris; Dennis Golden; Debra Denham; Christine Chadwick; the Rev. Sammie Jones; Metro Evening Whirl’s Gentry Trotter and St. Louis American’s Donald Suggs. After he was introed to revenue collector Greg F.X. Daly, Morial joshed, “Hey, I don’t owe any taxes.  I’m all paid up!”  And, head table guests eyeballed what some described as a 5-carat diamond ring on St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green‘s finger.  Word was that she recently got hitched to businessman Melvin Hayes.