One day when she was way past 50, Penny just woke up, and had to have a banjo or die. Sound crazy? Yep. It was crazy, but that is how it happened. She had never touched a stringed instrument, and did not even like that whiney singing, but a banjo it was! Crazy.

Penny grew up in a totally music-free home. Some of the members of her family could play the radio, but that was about it. Unlike the other band members who spent their early years involved in music, Penny spent hers training and showing horses, teaching 3rd grade, training guide dogs for the blind, raising kids, counseling, and starting a business. At church she began learning about music, as she sang in various choirs. She also learned to direct music and play the piano.

In the mid 80's, she got together with 3 friends and started a quartet, called the Harmonettes. They have been singing and dancing their way into the hearts of local audiences for almost 20 years now with their cheery barbershop, ballads, doo wop, and dynamite Christmas music.

In 2000, Penny and Sonya got together to pick a little and the rest, as they say, is history. Penny attributes her knowledge of the banjo, to the wonderfully gifted teachers she has had over the last few years--Steve Dilling, Barney Rogers, Tom Garren, Jan Johanssen (Bluegrass teacher--not banjo!), and Julie Elkins. Penny also plays the bass for the Pie when needed.

"I am constantly amazed that these wonderful people are willing to play and sing with me. There just isn't enough time left for me to really become a real banjo player, but incredibly that has never stopped me from having the most spectacular mid-life crisis that anybody could have ever dreamed up, including more fun than one woman ought to be having!!"

When Penny is not performing with the Pie she works at American Airlines, researchers her family history teaches marriage relationship classes, quilts, and tries to balance her time between her kids and grandkids.

Fifteen minutes into his first Bluegrass festival, Penny’s husband, George, turned to her and said, “Let’s sell everything we own and buy an RV and just travel to festivals for the rest of our lives.” “Thanks, Georgie.”