On Thursday 5 October 2023, Gene Watson praised longtime fan, Janice Willis, for presenting him with an 80th birthday card and 80 brownies, at The Blue Gate Performing Arts Center, 105 East Middlebury Street in Shipshewana, Indiana.
Gene Watson with an 80th birthday card and 80 brownies, courtesy of longtime fan, Janice Willis
The Blue Gate Performing Arts Center, 105 East Middlebury Street, Shipshewana, IN 46565
Thursday 5 October 2023
‘Longtime fan, Janice Willis surprised me at our Shipshewana, IN show on Thursday 5 October 2023, with 80 of her homemade brownies in honour of my 80th birthday. That’s what you call a sweet surprise!
Janice has been to so many of my shows I don’t know if even she has kept count, but it’s been over 40 years of concerts!
She’s made a whole lot of delicious brownies for us over the years, and she also brought paper roses, one per concert until she had given me an even dozen.
Some of you may recall that Janis made national news when she was featured in the online country magazine, ‘The Boot’.
The remarkable story is that Janice, who hails from Marion, IN won some money in the Lottery, and the first thing she wanted to do, was to bring our show to her town for a charity event.
We performed there and it was a fun-filled, sold-out event, with every bit of the proceeds going to Janice’s local area.
Thank you, Janice, for being such a great fan, and we hope your town appreciated your generosity!’
Source
• Gene Watson on Facebook
Janice Willis, from Marion, Indiana was the featured as Gene Watson’s ‘Spotlight Fan’ in the June 2010 issue of Gene Watson’s Newsletter.