Barbara Mandrell celebrates 50 years on the Opry

Good morning, friends, this is Tennessean storytelling columnist Brad Schmitt, happy to tell you about my first country crush, Barbara Mandrell.

Longtime fans know Mandrell as the veteran country star who launched her career at age 11 by playing several instruments on stage for the Nashville-based headliners of the day. Tennessean music writer Marcus Dowling tells you all about her career and her 50 years on the Opry in this story.

I know Barbara (we're on a first-name basis, ya know) as the first celebrity I met after coming to Nashville in 1990 to be a police reporter for The Tennessean. That's the same year Barbara released her autobiography, "Get to the Heart" — and she was one of several celebs appearing at a Tennessean-sponsored dinner event for book authors.

I got assigned to cover the event, and I had brief backstage chats with each author.

Barbara shook my clammy rookie-reporter hand, looked into my eyes and started asking me about myself. In a crowd of 500, we were the only two people in the whole wide world. I went home with my first Nashville celeb crush, an autographed book and a big smile that didn't go away for hours.

We've stayed in touch over the years, and she has been kind enough to give me a few more interviews and invite me to her home a handful of times. After each encounter, I've left with the same goofy grin I had in 1990.

Happy Opry anniversary, Barbara. Thanks for helping a scared, young reporter fall in love with Nashville.

And thank you, kind folks, for reading The Tennessean. Dig into more stories below.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Barbara Mandrell celebrates 50 years on the Opry