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2003

SOURCE AWARD RECIPIENT

Cecile Light

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Cecile was bom in Antwerp, Belgium. Shortly after immigrating to the US from Italy where she lived until June 1967, she was offered two positions in the music industry-one was from Tandy Rice who was president of Show Biz; and the other was from Jerry Bradley at Bradley's Bam and Forest Hills Music. Jerry offered $5.00 more a week so she took his job - her pay was $55.00 a week. Other happenings during that period were: Women were not allowed to wear pants to work. A songwriter's contract was printed on one single sheet of paper. A state-of-the-art recording console was an 8-track. A girls' best friend was an IBM Selectric Lunch at Marchetti's was 65 cents. Bradley's Barn (at one time a real barn with cows & manure) was purchased by Owen in 1964, after selling the Quonset Hut.

While working there, she was instrumental in the sessions of Loretta Lynn, Eddy Arnold, Ernest Tubb, Art Garfunkel, Brenda Lee, Burl Ives, Joan Baez, Kitty Wells, Leon Russell, Marty Robbins, Pete Fountain, Roy Orbison, The Who, and numerous others... including movie soundtracks of "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Sweet Dreams."

After fire destroyed the Barn in 1980, it was rebuilt and sessions continued with George Jones, Keith Richards, and many more. During this time, she was also assisting Jerry Bradley with Forest Hills Music, whose original writers were Jan Crutchfield, David Briggs and L. E. White.
In 1986, when Jerry Bradley became president of Acuff-Rose Music, Cecile continued on with Jerry as Executive Assistant. She had 16 fabulous years working with some of the top writers in town. Acuff-Rose Publishing was sold to Sony/ATV in 2002 and Cecile retired from the music industry.

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