Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Ellen Lawson 
Cell Phone:     323-204-8532
Email:              elawson250@aol.com
Website:         www.ellenlawson.com

SEATTLE NATIVE ELLEN LAWSON CELEBRATES HER SURPRISE 60th BIRTHDAY
AT DICK’S ON 45th

Attire Casual, Attendance Mandatory

Seattle Native Ellen Lawson, Actress, Singer, Film Star and Minister of the Universal Life Church, in Seattle from her adoptive home town of Las Vegas (“How can anyone live here in the summer?”) for a wedding, will celebrate her Surprise 60th Birthday with 60 of her most intimate friends at Dick’s on 45th at noon on Saturday, August 30, 2008.  It’s a surprise because Ellen is very surprised she is 60.

Born at the now-replaced Renton Hospital in 1948 to Catherine Anne O’Leary Lawson and John Donald Robert Lawson of Boulevard Park in south Seattle, Ellen attended grade school at Immaculate Conception and Sacred Heart, Seattle (both taught by the Sisters of the Holy Names [SNJM]) and Our Lady of Lourdes, and returned to Immaculate Conception (IHS) for high school.  She attended now-defunct Fort Wright College of the Holy Names in Spokane from 1966-68 (also taught by the SNJM’s) and received her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from Seattle University (Go Red Hawks) and her Master in Music from San Diego State University.

Ellen began her public musical life as Annie in 1964 in the Seattle Prep production of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun” at the now-demolished and built-over Palomar Theatre in Seattle’s downtown.  After serving as cantor and soloist at Seattle’s St. James Cathedral, and St. Joseph, St. George and Our Lady of Fatima Churches, and as choir director at St. Edward Church, Ellen moved with her husband, Charles Burnett and two sons Tim and Ben Johnson, to San Diego in 1980 to set up life with her family and to continue her musical studies and performances.

The actress performed in Regional Theatre at the San Diego Repertory, the Oregon Cabaret, the Spokane Interplayer’s Ensemble, and the Idaho Shakespeare Company.  In the 80’s, Ellen returned from San Diego back home to Seattle on four occasions to offer Christmas Music Concerts to benefit the Mississippi Mission of the Sisters of the Holy Names.  Recently, Ellen spent three-and-a-half years in Los Angeles where, in 2007, she appeared in four independent films, “Mr. Cynic,” directed by Michael Campbell, “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus,” directed by Christian Fillipella, “Tracks of Saints,” directed by Nathan Atkinson and “First Period,” directed by Allison Schwartz.

In lieu of expensive and bulky gifts that may not fit on the aircraft for the return flight to Las Vegas, Ellen suggests that gifts be made to the Sisters of the Holy Names Mississippi Mission, where the sisters and the residents of Jonestown and its environs, since the early 80’s, have demonstrated hope, dignity, and respect to each other and their neighbors.  Per the site, http://www.snjmusontario.org/Mississippi_Mission_Centre.html (the) area along the Mississippi River has a sorry history of poverty and racism, though the land is the richest in the country.

Ellen and her large family will be joined by old and new friends, including high school friends from her Alma Mater Immaculate, and Holy Names Academy, Forest Ridge, Seattle Prep, O’Dea and Blanchet.  Her classmate, Lucille Nollette, IHS, 1966, is attending, and will bring a photo from the ‘60’s of her daughter Mollie being held by Ellen, in the parking lot at Dick’s.

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Please contact Ellen for an interview or more information.  Cellular:  323-204-8532