- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- April 2006
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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ГЛК
HEEL PEOPLE
A Whistling Work
/\ childhood pastime became a lifelong companion, and now I liekorys
Phyllis I leil uses her unusual musical talent to bring joy to others.
by Neal Thompson
Phyllis Hcil never imagined ihai
after a long. successful career as
a Kmart manager she'd find
herself in semi-retirement u “The
Whistling Woman." with two CDs to
her name. She never could have
predicted the championship trophies
on the mantel, or the growing file of
newspaper clippings, or being
interviewed on radio and TV.
And she certainly never imagined
that her lifelong hobby would take
her to Burbank. California, into a
chauffeured limousine, and onto the
vet of “The Tonight Show," where
she had her own dressing room,
joked with Jay l.cno. and brushed
past Donald Trump and actress
Jenny McCarthy.
"It's been an a rearing year.' admits
the energetic 56-ye.u-old.
And this unexpected journey — she
now calls it her "mission" — all
began, oddly enough, with a funeral.
A lifelong hobby
Heil grew up on a sprawling farm in
CJullowe, in southwestern Virginia.
Her dad was a coal miner and farmer;
and the family didn't have much money
for toys, let alone musical instruments.
When she was four sears old. one of
Heils four brothers gave her a lesson,
the result of which was a lifelong
companion that no money could buy.
Her brother told her to stick her
pinky in her mouth, tighten her lips
around it, then take her finger out and
blow through the hole in her hiss.
In time she learned how to blow
correctly and to make beautiful music
pass through what she now likes to
call her “puck-olo." Her family
members were all singers in the church
choir, and she started whistling her
Southern gospel favorites, but Heil
30 Our Mate April
Л»*