With the soothing sound of soul echoing through the Penn Valley lobby, the opening ceremony for Women's History Month began.

The voices of the Wild Women of Kansas City - a local group that has been together for ten years - blended in perfect harmony as they sang in the styles of gospel, blues, and jazz.

The eldest member of the group, Myra Taylor, is 91 years old and has been performing for over 75 years. It would seem she would not be able to keep the attention of younger generations, but she did exactly the opposite. Any time she opened her mouth the crowd was rolling from her spunk and fresh sense of humor.

When one of the other singers, Lori Tucker, began to brag about how beautiful she found herself, Myra snapped, "I knew I should have worn my glasses because I can't see all of that." She had the entire crowd of all ethnicities laughing with each other.

Taylor flirted with Gary Wilson, Penn Valley's Public Safety Manager. After rising from her wheelchair and "shaking it," she followed with an impression of Louis Armstrong crooning "Sunny Side of the Street," which she hit dead on. She also told photographers to take her photo "straight on" because she had no teeth on the side.

One of the Wild Women, Geneva Price, is a 48 year-old breast cancer survivor. Another member, Millie Edwards, is a reading instructor at Penn Valley.

In the middle of the performance, Kim Riley, director of all the Women's History Month events at Penn Valley, told of her desire to make Penn Valley the headquarters in Kansas City for Women's History Month. She then called for some ladies to join her in the "circle of sisterhood" where they quoted an excerpt from Oprah's book, we Speak Your Name.

They then began to "speak" the names of women in our community and across our nation starting with Jackie Snyder, the first female chancellor of MCC, and ending with none other than the top dog herself, Oprah Winfrey.

When they finished, they encouraged the young ladies in the crowd to make a name for themselves and impact their communities.

To find the show schedule of the Wild Women of Kansas City go to http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=113665580

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