McGraw serenade caps woman’s trip

A Chicago-area woman experienced an epic run of lady luck during her weekend visit to Las Vegas.

Linda Kennedy, of Rockford, Ill., started her lucky streak when she ran into country star Tim McGraw by chance in the casino at The Venetian.

Her roll continued Saturday when she won $3,000 before heading off to see McGraw and his wife, Faith Hill, in concert for the first time.

Kennedy hit the jackpot when McGraw spotted her in the sixth row and asked her to approach the front of the stage.

He kneeled down, leaned over and serenaded her with Conway Twitty's "Linda on My Mind."

With the crowd of 1,800 roaring its approval as McGraw finished, he pulled out a pen, signed his guitar and presented it to her.

Kennedy was being mobbed like a rock star when I ran into her in the lobby.

"I've already had two people ask me if they could buy it," she said, quickly adding, "Never, ever, ever."

ROCKIN' REUNION

It was a night of nostalgia for some local Journey faithful who attended Friday's concert at Planet Hollywood Resort.

Thirty years ago, during Journey's Escape Tour stop here, 23 ninth-graders from K.O. Knudsen Middle School took up most of row S in the Aladdin's Theater of the Performing Arts. Nineteen of them returned Friday to the same theater in what is now Planet Hollywood Resort.

"We all had albums back then. No such things as CDs," recalled Michele Tell-Woodrow, a former Review-Journal newsroom clerk who now co-owns Preferred Public Relations with her husband, Jim Woodrow. So many of the 14-year-olds piled into her family's Camaro, she recalled, that the shock absorbers broke, "and we had a lowrider."

THE SCENE AND HEARD

Those "white knights" who came forward at the 11th hour to help cover the expenses for former weatherman John Fredericks' burial and memorial service? Sources confirmed it was Channel 3 owner Jim Rogers and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, senior vice president of communications & government relations for Caesars Entertainment. Each committed $1,000 to the effort.

Fredericks, who died at 57 on Nov. 23, was remembered at Saturday's memorial service as a man who used his celebrity to advance animal causes. "Man's best friend was truly his best friend," said Robin Joyce, pastor at Canyon Ridge Christian Church, where an estimated 200 gathered for Fredericks' final send-off. ...

Team Chippendales, Jaymes Vaughan and James Davis, came in second in the finale of "The Amazing Race," which aired Sunday on CBS.

SIGHTINGS

Bruce Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa, with Oscar winner Tom Hanks at Hill and McGraw's 8 p.m. performance of their opening weekend of "Soul2Soul" at The Venetian. At one point during the show, McGraw was reeling off a list of his musical idols and mentioned Springsteen, without giving away that he was in the crowd. ... At the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight at MGM Grand Garden on Saturday: Mitt and Ann Romney, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of "Jersey Shore," rapper and fight promoter 50 Cent, rappelling into the ring while singing "My Life" as his fighter Yuriorkis Gamboa entered the arena, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Metta World Peace, chef Gordon Ramsay, Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, actor Anthony Anderson and Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin ("The Exorcist" and "The French Connection"), seated with boxing promoter Bob Arum and Johnson. Friedkin is coming out with his autobiography in the spring.

THE PUNCH LINE

"Spoiler alert. I don't think you are going to like how this ends." - Pacquiao, to his family and friends as a DVD of his fight with Marquez began playing in Pacquiao's suite after he suffered a shocking sixth-round knockout.

Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter @Norm_Clarke. "Norm Clarke's Vegas," airs during the "Morning Blend" on KTNV-TV, Channel 13 every Thursday.