Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 7 · column 1 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By Jan LaValley
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Although she has been a professional entertainer for about 20 years, Debbie Zinn released her first recording on tape and CD just this year.
Zinn, along with fellow entertainer Jake Butler, works at Skyland Lodge in Shenandoah National Park where they regularly entertain visitors to the park and guests staying at the lodge.
Zinn has deep roots in Rappahannock. Her grandparents were Curtis and Hazel Zinn of Amissville and her father Frank Zinn. Dorothy Hackley of Amissville is her aunt and Jan Makela, of Hackley’s Store, her cousin. Zinn sang in church and school while growing up but had no formal voice training. She took guitar lessons and continued to sing whenever she could but her break came while working at Skyland as assistant dining room supervisor. She had worked part time at Skyland during college and after graduation began a full time job there in 1977. In 1981 one of the entertainers at the lodge left and one of the managers, who knew she sang, asked her to fill in. She sang two or three nights a week and the rest, as they say, is history.
“When I first started singing at the lodge I’d have jitters so bad I’d almost get physically ill. Whenever the season starts each year I still get them but I settle down after the first couple of songs,” she said.
The lodges in the park now employ four or five entertainers a night and the group rotates among the different lodges. Zinn also coordinates
93.8%