Young Diana DeGarmo a Star of Long Standing
Among the scores of talented young beauties who flocked to Orlando for the 1995 Millie Lewis American Modeling & Talent Convention, one contestant stood out.
"Almost guaranteed a future star," said Barry Shapiro, vice president of New York's Herman & Lipson Casting Inc.
"The best I've had to pass through this convention," said convention owner and director Carey Arban.
They were talking about 8-year-old Diana DeGarmo.
Fast forward to the present, and their words ring prophetic. DeGarmo, now 16, may not be the "American Idol" winner, but her future as a pop star is all but assured.
"The show's over," DeGarmo said in an interview after the "Idol" finale, "but I'm so excited, because we've only begun a brand-new journey. I'm not going to let the ball stop rolling."
"Idol" judge Randy Jackson has hinted he might like to work with DeGarmo, who soon begins a 52-city tour that hits Atlanta on Aug. 15.
DeGarmo's rise is nothing surprising to the legion of friends and fans in her hometown who have been cheering her on for years.
Former teachers say she was always an incredible talent, but also a kind, thoughtful and industrious student.
In December, before the "Idol" frenzy whipped into high gear, DeGarmo was inducted into the National Honor Society at Shiloh High School, where she is a rising senior.
"She's a very good student," Shiloh assistant principal Nancy Fowler said recently. "When she is here, she works hard."
Gwinnett educators Susan Underwood and Katrina Slayton have been cheering DeGarmo on since her days in Annistown Elementary School shows.
"She's just a phenomenon," Slayton said.
Both women say DeGarmo always stood out during school pageants, but she never wanted acclaim all for herself.
"Her manners, respect and thoughtfulness for others" are what Slayton remembers about the young DeGarmo.
Added Underwood: "She would clap and clap for the others."
Educators Margaret Butler and Margaret Weatherly --- known as the M&M's --- also knew DeGarmo as a talented Annistown student. They were among the crowd that welcomed DeGarmo when she made a recent visit to Snellville City Hall and Snellville United Methodist Church next door.
"We were going to go to L.A., but we couldn't get tickets to the show," Butler said.
Not to worry, though: "If we can't see her in L.A., we'll see her in Snellville, where everybody's somebody," she said.
During her trip home, DeGarmo said she would love to perform a concert for her fellow Snellvillians one day. Butler and Weatherly say they knew DeGarmo was headed for the bright lights from the time she amazed audiences at her elementary school.
"We knew from that minute on she was bound for stardom," Weatherly said.
Nada Clements also saw DeGarmo's potential years ago.
"You could tell that when she was young," she said. "It was pretty darn obvious." The former director of music ministry at DeGarmo's church, Zoar United Methodist, Clements first worked with a 6-year-old Diana who was too shy to stand in front of the congregation when she sang.
"She was so nervous," Clements recalled. "The very first time she sang in church, she had to stand right beside me at the piano. She didn't want to stand out front."
Clements was taken aback by the tiny girl's big voice.
"I thought, 'I cannot believe a child this young has this much depth and warmth in her voice already,' " Clements said.
DeGarmo's early shyness soon vanished, and she was quickly in demand.
"Not long after she started singing in church, she started singing everywhere," Clements said. "When she was around I always made sure she got to sing."
DeGarmo has said her friends used to call her "The Star-Spangled Banner Girl" because she has performed the national anthem so many times, at so many events.
Like many of DeGarmo's hometown fans, Clements isn't too terribly upset at the "American Idol" outcome.
"I was just thrilled she got as far as she's gotten," she said. "She's sung for millions of people. She's really a good kid. She's going to do what she's going to do. It didn't matter if she won or not."
No one's a bigger DeGarmo fan than Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer. From the Tuesday night viewing party at the Governor's Mansion in Buckhead, to the live "Today" show spot filmed Wednesday morning outside Snellville Methodist, to the finale at the Georgia Dome on Wednesday night, Oberholtzer has seemed about to burst with local pride.
"She's really somebody we can be proud of out of Snellville," said the mayor, who was seen sporting his snappy pink tie all over the place in the days leading up to the finale.
A year ago, in a story about Gwinnett's many talented youngsters, DeGarmo said hailing from a town brimming with self-esteem may have contributed to her success.
"Snellville's motto is 'Where Everybody is Somebody,' and for the people who grew up here, they've always believed that," she said in a July 2003 interview. "Maybe people here believe in themselves more."
As she prepares for a white-hot future, here's a look at some of the highlights of DeGarmo's past. > 1995: DeGarmo, at age 8, wins Child Acting and Child Talent awards at the Millie Lewis American Modeling & Talent Convention at the Walt Disney World Swan resort in Orlando. > July 1996: DeGarmo performs as one of the "Coke City" performing kids at Coca-Cola Olympic City near Centennial Olympic Park during the Atlanta Olympics. > August 1996: DeGarmo performs at opening ceremonies to christen the new Shiloh High School stadium. The event also featured Diamond Rio and Trace Adkins and raised money to help the Shiloh Stadium Foundation pay for the facility. > Summer 1997: DeGarmo performs at Dollywood. > September 1997: DeGarmo, then 10, performs at Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards at Georgia World Congress Center and earns a thunderous standing ovation. A reviewer said she sounded "much like Brenda Lee during a medley that included 'Crazy.' " > October 1997: DeGarmo is interviewed about her role in a local television show called "The Cartoon Gang." The panel of six metro Atlanta kids discuss what they like and dislike about cartoons. Segments aired on the Cartoon Network. DeGarmo said then that she was excited to be part of such a "funky cast." > January 1998: DeGarmo is among the featured performers for the New Year's Eve Big Peach Drop. > August 1999: DeGarmo performs in Candler Park at "A Day in the Park With the Arts," part of a summer series of free events staged throughout Atlanta. > September 2001: DeGarmo, at 14, is named winner of the first Miss Teen Gwinnett America pageant, earning the right to compete for the title of Miss Teen Georgia America in Columbus the following year. She was then a freshman at Shiloh High School. > April 2003: DeGarmo, at 15, thrills the judges on "America's Most Talented Kid," an NBC talent show not unlike "American Idol" except the judges were supportive of the young talent, not critical.
Then a sophomore at Shiloh, DeGarmo said at the time she had sung the national anthem so many times at Falcons, Braves and Hawks games and other events that "I can sing it backward and inside out and in my sleep." She said she enjoyed dancing on teen night at Cowboys, a country-western nightclub in Cobb County, and loved shoes.
"I have more than 100 pairs," she said. Just a few months shy of her 16th birthday, she said she badly wanted a car --- and a record contract. > February 2004: Snellville and Shiloh learn DeGarmo, 16, has earned a spot among the final 32 contestants on the third season of "American Idol."
