News at Eleven: So the septuagenarian [Ruth Sanders] had to wing it.

But the audience didn't mind.

They had to respect her. She was, after all, the woman who Ritz Executive Director Carol Alexander dubbed "the mother of Amateur Night."

"Whose love and care we depend upon when life for us begins? Who patiently teaches and molds our lives time and time again?" Sanders recited to an audience that took in her words as they restlessly anticipated hearing the winners of the monthly talent competition.

from The Florida Times-Union: Poet Ruth Sanders, 75, respected as 'the mother of Amateur Night' at Ritz Theatre

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