| Cathy Black Bio
Cathy Black resides in Peoria, Illinois with her husband. However, she grew up in Huron, Ohio where she discovered early the joys of musical performance. When Cathy was just 12 years old, she lost her mother to lung cancer. It was then that Cathy began writing music to express her grief and found that the combination of lyrics and melodies brought peace and comfort to her grieving family and, in particular, her young widowed father.
Throughout her youth, she generously gave the gift of her time and talents to dozens of organizations through hundreds of events where she volunteered herself as a speaker, performer, writer, and emcee for school, church and civic functions. Performance granted Cathy numerous opportunities for growth and recognition. For example, while in Columbus, Cathy sang the National Anthem for high-profile political events involving former President Clinton, William Cohen, Sandy Berger and Madeline Albright, and was commended by Ohio Senator John Glenn for her talents.
Cathy met Miss American 1963, Jackie Mayer at one such performance, who suggested that Cathy look into the Miss Ohio Scholarship Program, but warned, "You’ll have to lose some weight." Cathy heeded Jackie's advice and won her 3rd preliminary try in 1997, and went on to become the first runner-up to Miss Ohio in 1998. Though she never seized the crown, competing brought a sense of joy and excitement to her friends and family that created irreplaceable memories. Competitions also helped transform the tomboy raised by her dad into a confident and poised woman.
Cathy graduated from The Ohio State University with a BA in Psychology in 1999. Along with numerous other leadership accolades, she was awarded the prestigious “Outstanding Senior” and honored by the OSU President, faculty and student body.
Cathy credits her successes to her father, who was 1995's OSU Parent of the Year. Sadly, His involvement as her pageant mom, fan club president, and best friend came to an abrupt end when he passed away in 2001 just months after Cathy's wedding. Losing her father further deepened her reliance on her faith and the gift of music, which had brought so much joy to her family over the years. However, given both of Cathy's parents deaths were due to tobacco related cancers, Cathy took her grief and turned it into activism and had the opportunity to share her compelling story with thousands of teenagers in Illinois working for the State of Illinois "I Decide" youth anti-tobacco campaign. Cathy also established the John and Libby Black Foundation For Life and has raised nearly $10,000 through performances and CD sales of the song she wrote in tribute to her father, "Make A Miracle of Me".
In 2002 when six students from BGSU were killed in an automobile accident returning from Spring Break, Cathy composed "I'm Still Here" in their memory. Several thousand CDs of this song were sold to help raise over $180,000 in scholarship contributions to honor the young lives lost.
Last year, Cathy's dear friend, Jon Martin of Bellevue, Ohio, was killed in Iraq and Cathy donated the sale of the song "The Sum" she wrote in his honor to his family, helping raise over $20,000 for the Wounded Soldiers Fund.
Cathy performs with a RealityNox and First Class Ticket and records professionally. She has written nearly 200 original compositions, has sold over 5,000 CDs, and has performed for an estimated one million listeners throughout her twenty year career.
When Cathy is not performing musically, she's excelling in the business world as a sales and marketing executive, most recently as a National Director of Marketing and Sales for an LA based manufacturing company. Having seen the country and traveled 2-3 weeks per month for the last four years, Cathy now consults for local companies in the Peoria area on how to maximize their marketing efforts on smaller budgets. Cathy is married to Steve Grant and they have a beautiful daughter, Libby, and are looking forward to adding to their family in the future.
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