{"id":18714,"date":"2024-08-23T15:01:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T19:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=18714"},"modified":"2024-08-23T15:01:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T19:01:02","slug":"cancer-survivor-honored-on-plaza-kelsey-calls-cousins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/23\/cancer-survivor-honored-on-plaza-kelsey-calls-cousins\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer survivor honored on plaza; Kelsey calls cousins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Family Night on the Madison Street Plaza Thursday as the Sweetwater All-Stars provided the sweet music for the penultimate concert of the Decatur Chamber’s 2024 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one featured probably the most emotional few moments ever seen on the plaza via a song delivered to a cancer survivor surrounded by her sisters and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And another family came to the forefront through Sweetwater trumpet player Brett Kelsey, sparked by a story on WZBD.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linda Bixler has been a regular at the Thursday night concerts for several years, seen mostly on the dancing area in front of the stage. If you’ve been to a concert, you’ve seen Linda dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That all came to a halt this year, however, as Linda began a battle with cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, on this next-to-last night of the concert season, she returned to the plaza, receiving a warm welcome from many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sisters (L to R) Karen Sills, Linda Bixler, Candy Johnson. (Janelle Young \u00a0Photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were few dry eyes as All-Stars singer Lisa McDavid sang \u201cNatural Woman\u201d to Linda while she was surrounded by sisters Karen Sills and Candy Johnson and others. (A video is on Facebook.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lisa McDavid sings to Linda Bixler (in yellow). (Janelle Young photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McDavid said she remembered Linda \u2013 approaching her 75th<\/sup> birthday \u2013 from previous Sweetwater All-Star performances in Decatur and she left the stage to sing \u2013 and to hug Linda on at least two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KELSEY CLAN: Kelsey, who’s played trumpet for the All-Stars since their existence nearly 10 years ago, is the son of the late Thelma Noll Kelsey Alexander and Ned Kelsey. His mother, a native of Pleasant Mills, had 15 siblings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Brett, who has never lived in Adams County, nevertheless has cousins scattered all around this area \u2013 including Janelle Young, Keith Young, Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord, Elaine Rash, Kip Massoth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several of his cousins attended the concert and Kelsey had them stand during a break taken by the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsey’s story may be found on WZBD.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINGER SICK: The All-Stars played for nearly three full hours, delighting another large crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont High School student Jayleena Hil, 15, was scheduled to open for the All-Stars but was sidelined by illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com It was Family Night on the Madison Street Plaza Thursday as the Sweetwater All-Stars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14],"class_list":["post-18714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}