As The 'Queen of Disco' Is Laid to Rest in Music City, Nashville Theatre Remembers Donna Summer

Nashville, as a city, can be defined in many different ways: Oftentimes referred to as “The Athens of the South,” in recognition of its many colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning, it’s also known as a city that banking, insurance and religious publishing built. But all over the world, the city’s heartbeat pulses through the lives of millions of people for whom Music City USA represents the home of country music, the esteemed Fisk University Singers and a myriad of performers who’ve plied their trade here while establishing relatively low-key lives among the tree-lined streets and welcoming neighborhoods where your next-door neighbor might be a superstar—like the “Queen of Disco,” Donna Summer, who at age 63 last week lost her battle with cancer and who this week will be laid to rest in a memorial service in her recently adopted hometown of Nashville.

The Boston native, whose circuitous career and meteoric rise to fame took her from New York City to Berlin and back to Los Angeles and various points in between, moved to Nashville in 1995, seeking a more laidback existence for herself and her family, a bucolic setting to raise her two daughters, a place that would allow her to continue to pursue her artistic dreams and aspirations while making her presence here known with a quiet dignity and a perhaps unexpected grace. To put it succinctly, Donna Summer moved to Nashville to escape the bright lights and paparazzi in order to be part of the community that so warmly welcomed her home.

Last week, in the wake of her untimely death, it seemed that virtually everyone in Nashville had a particularly fond Donna Summer memory to recall, including Aurora Daniels (who has been my best friend since college): “I was at the movie theatres at Green Hills Mall shortly after they opened and while a friend and I were waiting online to move into the theatre, ‘MacArthur Park’ began to play and I started singing along, only to be told by my friend Reece that I had gotten a lyric wrong,” she remembers. “We were arguing when this very beautiful woman turned to us and said, ‘She’s right,’ referring to me. It was Donna Summer and I was absolutely thrilled and embarrassed at the same moment.”

For a number of Nashvillians, church was the setting for their own up-close and personal encounter with Summer, including actors J.T. Landry and David Chattam.

“We lost another great one today,” laments Landry. “Rest in Peace Donna Summer. We went to the same small church in Franklin about 12 years ago, and I remember her as very unassuming and humble. And then she would occasionally get up to sing and fill the room with that earth-shattering voice. Thoughts and prayers to her family.”

Actor David Chattam recalls another Sunday in another church when he realized Donna Summer had taken the seat next to him in the congregation of his church.

“A few years ago, I'm sitting in church waiting for the service to begin. As the choir starts up and is doing their thing, this woman comes in and stands in the space next to me. I really don't pay much attention to her because I'm enjoying the choral selection,” he recalls. “I more or less just see her out of the corner of my eye. When the song is over, I turn to be cordial and say hello to the lady... It's Donna Summer. I stand there looking at her, not really saying anything, and she smiles and says hello. Finally, I snap out of it, say hello back, and then we sit and enjoy the rest of the service, but the whole time, I've got the song ‘Bad Girls’ stuck in my head.”

For Chattam, sitting next to Summer brought back some very special childhood memories: “When I was a kid, my dad used to blast Donna Summer’s ‘Bad Girls’ on the record player in the mornings to wake me up for school, and I would hop out of bed dancing. I’ve never been one to get starstruck, but when you’re unexpectedly standing face-to-face with someone you grew up on, it kind of stuns you for a second.”

For dancer/performer/actor/teacher Kelvin Amburgey, Summer’s death touched his heart because “she was the sound track to my young life.”

“Dim all the lights, sweet darling…this really makes me sad,” he says wistfully. “She was the sound track to my youth and this hits me hard.”

Actor Ed Amatrudo, who is among local stars cast in ABC’s upcoming Nashville television series, calls Summer “one of the very best female voices of all time. Like Kelvin, her music was the soundtrack of much of my young days, too. Let’s hope they do a tribute to this deserving artist the way they did for Whitney.”

Actress Francine Berk-Graver agrees with Amatrudo, saying “I am so sad. She is one in many, many millions and one of my all-time favorites. I still play her music and dance around the house when I need a pick-me-up and [my husband] Kenny needs a good laugh. Her music is a trip back in time to the days I love and miss so very much.”

Summer’s memorial service will be held in Nashville on Wednesday, May 23, in a private, invitation-only ceremony.

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