A group of international boarding students at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau posed for a photo at the Ring Mass on March 26, 1980. Miriam Garate, is pictured in green on the far left of the photo. Salma Hayek is pictured on the far right bottom corner. Both identified students were boarding students from Mexico.
Beth Ferguson and her young nephew with Taylor Swift in a Blue Cross Blue Shield conference room in 2006.
Taylor Swift signed this photo for Steven in 2006 in a conference room in Blue Cross Blue Shield in Baton Rouge.
FILE – Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce walks with Taylor Swift following the AFC Championship NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. As the Kansas City Chiefs head to the Super Bowl, baseless conspiracy theories are spreading on social media suggesting that the romance between megastar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is part of a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Taylor Swift performs during the opener of her Eras tour Friday, March 17, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Kameron Saunders, far left, is a backup dancer for Swift and the brother of New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Khalen Saunders. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Taylor Swift performs during “The Eras Tour,” Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Salma Hayek
Bonnie Hession, in Lafayette, still has the thank-you card from 1980 that Salma Hayek signed, along with other international students at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau.
The Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic girls school in Grand Coteau, has been in operation since 1821. The school is both a day school and a boarding school and is the second institution of learning west of the Mississippi River. Salma Hayek attended the school in 1980 as a boarding student from Mexico.
A group of international boarding students at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau posed for a photo at the Ring Mass on March 26, 1980. Miriam Garate, is pictured in green on the far left of the photo. Salma Hayek is pictured on the far right bottom corner. Both identified students were boarding students from Mexico.
Brushes with someone on the path toward superstardom leave a lasting impression.
Take Bonnie Hession in Lafayette. Back in 1980, she was the dorm mom for the boarding school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau. Remarkably, Hession has kept up with a number of her former students, visiting them in their homes in Mexico and in countries throughout South America.
There’s one student, though, who she hasn’t heard from in a long, long while. Even so, Hession has kept up with her former student in the four decades that have passed. Hession describes this particular student who had a giant smile full of braces, fringed bangs and a head full of hair as being ever “cheerful, joyful and always smiling.”
Bonnie Hession, in Lafayette, still has the thank-you card from 1980 that Salma Hayek signed, along with other international students at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau.
Salma Hayek attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart for two school years, from 1979 through 1981, her eighth and ninth grades years.
In a goodbye card to Hession at the end of the school year, alongside similar notes from other international students, this student wrote, “Bonnie, Salma loves you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you and I love you again. I’m gonna miss you.”
In 2023, Hayek, the acclaimed, blockbuster actress originally from Mexico, was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the world.
She’s come a long way from the sleepy, lovely grounds of the Academy of the Sacred Heart she attended as a freshman in high school.
The Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic girls school in Grand Coteau, has been in operation since 1821. The school is both a day school and a boarding school and is the second institution of learning west of the Mississippi River. Salma Hayek attended the school in 1980 as a boarding student from Mexico.
“Salma was always fun and full of life as a young boarding student in 1980 when I was her dorm mother,” Hession said. “I am immensely proud of Salma for dreaming big and believing in herself and her talents. Her perseverance paid off.”
Hession says, back then, she doesn’t recall thinking that Hayek had star power.
Then again, the two met when the eventual international superstar was just 13.
Having star power at 13 doesn’t come easy.
Salma Hayek
However, another eventual international superstar wasn’t much older than that when she made her way to Baton Rouge in 2006 — and helped deliver pizza as part of the prize to a conference room full of Blue Cross Blue Shield employees.
The now almost-unbelievable series of events happened because Beth Ferguson, who worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield, called WYNK country radio station at the right time.
“What had happened was WYNK, here in Baton Rouge, was doing a St. Jude’s Telethon,” said Ferguson. “And, they had a contest for a lunch for your office.”
Beth Ferguson and her young nephew with Taylor Swift in a Blue Cross Blue Shield conference room in 2006.
The radio station announced that everyone who donated to St. Jude during a certain hour would be entered into a drawing. Ferguson made a donation and later got a call from Sam McGuire to tell her she had won the lunch for her office.
Ferguson explained that she had a big office. WYNK said that was cool, the more the merrier.
Debbie Calkins, one of Ferguson’s co-workers at the time, ended up at the pizza lunch that day in the summer of 2006.
“It’s been a story at Blue Cross for years,” Calkins said. “Those of us who were there have our own memories.”
Taylor Swift performs during “The Eras Tour,” Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Calkins said there were about 15-20 people there.
Ferguson remembered it as closer to 40.
“Of course, when it happened, we had no idea it was going to be memorable,” Calkins said. “WYNK shows up that day. They had already confirmed we had won the pizza lunch. Then earlier on, the day of, they said, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to be sending a girl over with the pizza. She’ll play and sing a few songs on her guitar for y’all.'”
Calkins said the radio station folks showed up with the pizza, a teenager with a guitar and her mother.
“One thing I remember is that she had the cutest boots on. I say, ‘Cute.’ They were spectacular,” Ferguson said, adding that she thinks the boots were red. “Her mom sat with us. Sam McGuire, from the radio station, was there along with people from the radio station. He was thrilled we had so many people to listen to her.”
It bears repeating that there were somewhere between 15-40 people there for the pizza lunch/impromptu concert — and that the radio station was thrilled with the turnout.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield folks ate the pizza, along with their guests. Someone moved to tables and then, a young Taylor Swift sat in a corner and played her guitar and sang four songs. She was 16.
Taylor Swift performs during the opener of her Eras tour Friday, March 17, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Kameron Saunders, far left, is a backup dancer for Swift and the brother of New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Khalen Saunders. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Calkins sat there listening and couldn’t help but compare the blonde conference room performer to her own son, who is four months younger than Taylor Swift.
“I was up close. I was thinking, ‘Her 16 is so much different than my son’s,'” Calkins said. “She and her mother were driving around to country radio stations that summer to see if the stations would play Taylor’s records. Taylor was serious about her music. If that’s what it took to get her music out there, she and her mom were committed to do it.”
Even though both Calkins and Ferguson have watched Swift’s career closely since 2006, neither says they have been a part of the ticket hoopla required to attend the Eras concert, including the upcoming Oct. 25, 26 and 27 ones that will be in New Orleans.
Thinking back to that summer day in the conference room, both Ferguson and Calkins remember the details.
For example, Calkins remembers the singer’s hands.
“I remember looking at her hands and thinking, ‘Those are a musician’s hands. Those are not manicured hands.’ She was not flashy or super made-up, certainly she was not full of herself at all. Very humble,” Calkins said.
Ferguson remembers her demeanor and how humble the young singer was.
She remembers how Swift’s mother shared that the attention her daughter was receiving back in 2006 was overwhelming for the teenager.
FILE – Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce walks with Taylor Swift following the AFC Championship NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. As the Kansas City Chiefs head to the Super Bowl, baseless conspiracy theories are spreading on social media suggesting that the romance between megastar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is part of a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
And yet, as the eyes of the world have been on her for so many reasons in the years since, the entertainer seems to not only have managed well but to have flourished.
“I remember she kept thanking us,” Ferguson said. “She was so grateful to be able to do her music and that people liked it. Her mom sat at the table with me and a few other people. We talked about Taylor. She said, ‘Taylor’s just a simple girl. All of this attention to her is overwhelming.'”
After Swift sang, Calkins said the teenager’s mother invited everyone to line up to autograph 8-inch by 10-inch glossy photos for them.
“We didn’t want to appear ungrateful, so we all lined up and got pictures for our kids or for ourselves,” Calkins said. “I got two signed pictures for my sons.”
Taylor Swift signed this photo for Steven in 2006 in a conference room in Blue Cross Blue Shield in Baton Rouge.
At least one of Calkin’s sons still has the Taylor-signed glossy, complete with her myspace.com URL address and contact info for Big Machine Records, the recording company Swift famously split with and has since re-recorded songs for her fans to buy so she is able to own the music.
Ferguson remembers that the girl (who now may be the biggest celebrity on the planet) brought two guitars that day to the conference room at Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“It was just her and her guitar,” Ferguson said. “The intimacy of it — about 40 people in the room. The fact that she has become the superstar that she is, because she is a freaking superstar, to have that kind of experience with someone who is now a superstar — it was incredible.”
Email Jan Risher at [email protected].
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