Happy Days for Mary Helen who revels in Grammy’s link

The Grammy music award ceremony recently had a special interest for Athlone chiropractor Dr Mary Helen Hensley, particularly, the wins for Sam Smith and Kim Petras who scooped the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance categories.

Both singers wrote a foreword in a new book ‘A Better Voice,’ which Mary Helen is current editing for well known vocal coach Valerie Morehouse.

The Athlone writer took to Facebook while the Grammys were on and posted: "How fun is this???! I was sitting at home editing Sam and Kim’s (Petras) contributions to our latest book project with Val Morehouse, 'A Better Voice', and lo and behold they were off making history at the Grammys at the exact same time.’

“I am editing Valerie Morehouse’s book and we are a writing a book together with the working title of ‘A Singer’s Toolkit’,” Mary Helen told the Westmeath Independent.

“It takes a mind, body, spirit approach to creating a healthy singer,” she said.

Sam Smith and Kim Petras who won a Grammy last week for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for 'Unholy' have both written the foreword for ‘A Better Voice’ with actor Reeve Carney, who played Dorian Gray in the TV series, 'Penny Dreadful'.

Mary Helen also paid tribute on Facebook to the late American pop culture icon, Cindy Williams, who began her career in the successful TV sitcom, 'Happy Days'. The Athlone chiropractor, who is a native of Virginia, USA, spoke of her daughters taking an acting and production class with Cindy in 2019 at New York Film Academy in Burbank, California.

"‘She was incredibly smart, very witty and most of all, passionate about her art and sharing her wealth of knowledge about the industry. No doubt, her bubbly personality and kindness will be missed by all who loved her," Mary Helen said her post on social media.

“Cindy was very deeply involved in the faculty staff of the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles and the girls and I went to an open day there, and Cindy was director of the event, and we talked afterwards together because we had friends in common,” said Mary Helen.

The mutual friends are two other 'Happy Days' stars, Don Most and Anson Williams, both of whom are movie and TV directors today. While all three actors were early stars of 'Happy Days', Cindy Williams was better known for its spin-off, 'Laverne and Shirley' which was a No. 1 hit in the US and lasted nine seasons.

“I had been at dinner the night before with Anson and Don, so it was surreal to have talked with Cindy the next day, because when I was growing up in Martinsville, Virginia every Tuesday night for me revolved around the two programmes, 'Happy Days' and 'Laverne and Shirley',” said Mary Helen. “Back in those days of the 70s and 80s, we had the art of anticipation rocking and we had to wait next week to see what happened in the next episode, and there was no such thing as binge watching anything. Laverne and Shirley was huge and it came on following Happy Days, and every young person was allowed to watch both programmes and then bedtime. That was your TV time.”

Mary Helen found Cindy Williams very approachable and really funny when they met in 2019.

“She was very encouraging to me as a Mom who was taking her girls around places to school and she was a mother too,” said Mary Helen. “She said the biggest thing you can do for your children is to present them with the opportunities and then get out of the way. Don Most was in a play with her that went around America, and he always said she was such a pleasure to work with, no big ego, always smiling, and a really down to earth person that made it in Hollywood.”

Mary Helen made friends with the other 'Happy Days' stars several years ago when Don Most contacted her on Twitter about one of the metaphysical books that she authored.

“We ended up chatting and I was in Los Angeles staying with my friend Angelica Stone, and we went to a popular jazz club there called Catalina, and there I met with Don and his wife Morgan and became great friends with them, and then later I met up with his friend, Anson Williams and I’ve remained in touch with them all,” said Mary Helen.