The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Grammy nominee headlines pregnancy center benefit

Taste of Mason serves up diversity
New 8 min. ago
List of Grammy winners in select major categories
12:28 p.m.
‘Spelling Bee’ musical onstage next weekend
2/5/12
Satchel Paige play joins Black History Month lineup
2/5/12
Arts sampler grows to 3 Saturdays
2/5/12
> More headlines

By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 10:37 AM Thursday, November 19, 2009

MIDDLETOWN— Three-time Grammy Award nominee Michele Pillar comes to Middletown Saturday, she won’t be there just to sing, but to tell her story.

Pillar will perform and speak at the annual Celebrate Life Banquet benefiting Middletown’s Community Pregnancy Center.

According to Pillar’s official Web site, Pillar’s star was rising in the Contemporary Christian Music scene. She began performing at age 16. At age 17 she was cast in a rock opera written by friend Alf Clausen, who later became the composer for “The Simpsons,” for which Pillar was asked to play Karen Carpenter.

Tragedy struck in the early 1990s when Pillar’s husband, guitarist Larry Carlton, was shot in the neck during a gang-related shooting.

“It was time to stamp out the fire of my wants, needs and even my music. I had to put everything into the hand we’d been dealt. The whole family had to pull together; otherwise the situation would have taken us all out,” Pillar said on her Web site.

Carlton recovered after years of struggle, relearning to play the guitar.

Candice Keller, the executive director of the pregnancy center, said, “I attended a seminar and she (Pillar) was a speaker there. She told a personal story and it was pretty powerful. She dropped off the scene for about 10 years, but she’s still beautiful and she has a great voice and she’s got a new Christmas CD.”

Keller was referring to “I Hear Angels Calling,” an album Pillar and Carlton recorded, which mixes new songs with Christmas standards.

Last year the pregnancy center saw more than 1,800 teen girls, Keller said. The agency gave out 300 cans of baby formula, thousands of diapers, and 48 cribs with mattresses. The center plans to move to a new, larger location at the TV Middletown building on 1131 Central Ave. in 2010.

There is no admission charge for the show, but reservations are required and can be made by calling (513) 424-2229 or online at www.pregnancychoice.net/register.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.