2002 – Memphis, Tennessee
Tommie Pardue is a special events consultant and an avid arts advocate. She is a retired educator and former music instruction supervisor for Memphis City Schools. She is actively involved in leadership, board duties and working on community events – though for Tommie “community” and “world” are nearly synonymous. Tommie is a member of the Executive Board for the Center for Arts Education for the Memphis Arts Council and of the music panel for the Tennessee Arts Commission. She served as Chairman of the Board for the Mid-South Coliseum and was on the Board for the Germantown Performing Arts Centre in Memphis. She has been chairman of the steering committee and is treasurer of the board for “Play It Again, Memphis”, a program that collects used musical instruments from the public, refurbishes them and gives them to deserving young people. She was a delegate to the 2002 Cannes Film Festival in France and serves as treasurer of the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission. Tommie is co-author of the book Keyboard Strategies to Meet the National Standards in Music published by the Music Educators National Conference and has been published in a number of national professional journals for music education. She was a regular columnist for the Tennessee Musician. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Arts Academy in Nashville, an award given to the Tennessee educator whose life work has been acknowledged as a positive influence for the arts in the education of Tennessee students. She and her daughter, Cherrie Holden, were both selected as “50 Women Who Make A Difference” by the Memphis Women’s Magazine – the first mother/daughter team to receive this honor. She is listed in four editions of “Who’s Who”. Tommie was married to H. Gerald Pardue (deceased) for 46 years. They have three daughters and sons-in-law; Janie and Dr. Steve Charles, Cherrie and Rich Holden and Rhea and Billy Swaze, and four grandchildren.
