CHRISTMAS GIFT LED TO 'CLASSY CHASSY' SUCCESS

When Becki Scheeter's daughter gave her a karaoke machine for Christmas in 1996, she never dreamed her mother would become one of Southeast Missouri's brighest country stars.

"I started out singing in local nursing homes and then a few local festivals and things just kind of mushroomed from there," according to Becki, who may be better known as "Classy Chassy Country."

In Sept., 1997, she teamed up with Leroy Eftink, who refers to his boss as "Southeast Missouri's Queen of Country Music." An evening of singing and dancing always includes a lot of humor, making for a unique and fun-filled performance. Just ask anyone who has ever caught their act if Classy Chassy Country knows how to have a good time. And what's even better is that the fun is good, clean, family entertainment.

In Jan.,1999, they added karaoke to the show, which prompted a slight name change to Classy Chassy Country and Caraoke. The dynamic duo has performed in the mall in Cape Girardeau, the Dixie Theater in New Madrid, as well as restaurants, churches,clubs, and festivals in Oran, Chaffee, Morley, Marble Hill, Jackson, Cape, Kelso, Scott City, Commerce, New Hamburg, Vanduser, Allenville, Advance, Viburnum, Rockview, and Jonesboro, Ill. They also performed at the SEMO Fair in Cape and at the CP Center. Telethon in Sikeston.

It may have been fate or even Divine guidance that brought this duet together. It certainly wasn't planned by either. They had heard each other sing at karaoke bars around Oran a few times but never imagined they would ever sing together. It was at the Oran Fall Festival in Aug., 1997 during a casual conversation that Leroy asked Becki if, sometime, they might sing a song together. The rest is musical history.

And music comes naturally to the pair. Becki's brother, Bob and her mother, Eileen Redfern, teamed up with Eileen's brothers, the Proffer boys in the 1930s and formed a dance band, widely known in the Chaffee-New Hamburg area as "The Cookie Dusters." They played many a wedding dance over the years.

From the late 1940s until the early 1960s Leroy's great-uncles, the Horrell clan, fiddled on every hill and down every hollow in Southeast Missouri. Charlie Horrell was "Uncle Charlie" to a lot of folks. That was when country music was still "hillbilly."

When Classy Chassy Country comes to your town, load up Mom, Dad, the kids, Grandma, and Grandpa and join Becki and Leroy for some of the best music and fun you've had in a long time.

On March 26, Classy Chassy Country will present a concert at the Midwestern Evangelistic Center, six miles South of Marble Hill, to benefit the American Cancer Society. Admission will be free and with all donations being forwarded to the ACS.

The concert is being held in memory of Bob and Charles Redfern, Becki's father and brother; and Lawrence Eftink and Mary Alice Van Gennip, Leroy's fattier and sister; all of whom died of cancer. By way of this concert, Becki and Leroy hope to be able, with your support, to help in the fight against this devaststing disease that spares no family.