Area singer to appear on TV psychologist's show next week

Shawn East began having the panic attacks in 1995, the year her father was killed by a train. That same year, her paternal grandfather committed suicide, her maternal grandmother died and East herself was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She also discovered she had a grown half-sister, the product of an affair her now-deceased father had kept hidden.

Fear immobilized her, leaving the former runner-up in the Miss Missouri pageant introverted. Panic attacks woke her up at night with a racing heart and caused her weight to plummet to 93 pounds.

"I was afraid if I ate something I would choke on it," she said.

That was then. The past few months, East has been spending time in Nashville, singing at songwriter nights, recording songs and being groomed to become a country music star.

This turnabout in her life astonishes the 31-year-old mother of three. She credits songwriting and Dr. Phil.

Through his program, the tough-talking TV psychologist showed her how to live with "what ifs," she said. On Sept. 19, she will appear on the "Dr. Phil" show to talk about the changes she has undergone.

For East, the traumas actually began in 1991, when a drunk driver crashed head-on into her car, breaking her pelvis, hip and jaw. She discovered that singing now hurt.

She and her father, Edwin Batten, found her grandfather dead in June 1995. The following August, a train killed her father in her hometown of Broseley, Mo. He was on his way to meet her in Sikeston, Mo., to give her money before she left to compete in the Miss Missouri pageant.

East pulled out of the pageant after he was killed but entered the next year.

"I did that to prove it was not my fault," she said.

The following October, a letter arrived for Edwin Batten from a young woman who claimed he was her father. She did not know he had been killed.

'I was clueless'

East's parents fought when she was growing up because there wasn't enough money, she recalls, even though he worked two jobs. Now she and her three siblings know he was helping to support another child.

Shawn and her husband, Alan, live just west of Jackson with their sons Mason, 6, Trenton, 3, and Austin, 1 1/2.

Her fearfulness baffled Alan.

"I really didn't know what to do for her except try to talk her through it," he said. "I was clueless."

Using Dr. Phil's advice, she eventually began working the "what ifs" of her life through to their conclusion, "taking it to the absolute extreme," she said.

"What if you die? You work through the whole scenario. You come to find out life did go on. The people left behind will be OK."

She is not glad all those tragedies occurred. "But it's my experiences that make me as grateful as I am for what I have," East said.

She has dreamed of being a singer since childhood. A vocal major at Southeast Missouri State University at the beginning of the 1990s, East stopped singing until two years ago, when she started writing songs about her life. One of those songs is about her father, another about her husband.

'She believes she can do it'

Kim Copeland of Copeland-Tucker Management Productions in Nashville compares the power of her vocals to Martina McBride's.

"I have found a sound I didn't know I had," East said.

East has the look and the determination required, Copeland said. "She believes she can do it, and that makes me believe we can."

In October, East will begin singing at more Nashville clubs with her own band. In January, she will be presented to recording industry executives in a private showcase, a step that could lead to a recording contract.

Alan, who works at Procter & Gamble, is prepared to move to Nashville if necessary.

East e-mailed the "Dr. Phil" show a year ago to tell them her story.

"I thought, I want him to know that helped change my life," she said.

The show didn't respond until this summer and became even more interested when she told them about her new singing aspirations.

East flew to Los Angeles to film the segment Aug. 28. It will include clips of her singing.

She did not meet Dr. Phil then but has spoken to him on the phone. The producers also want her for a future show about overcoming tragedies.

"I hope someone sees it and says, 'Wow, I can do that too,'" East said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182