Melissa Sparks Petty

After graduation & one year at Middle Tennessee State University, I married George Thomas Taylor (a ROTC Graduate) and had our son, Jason, while George was stationed in the Army near Augusta, GA. After he left the army, we moved to St. Louis, MO. where we lived until 1976 when we moved to Columbia, MO. so I could continue my college career. I graduated from the University of MO with a B.S. in Animal Science in 1979 & again in 1983 with an M.S. in Equine Reproduction & Nutrition working on the KY 131 Fescue Toxicity problem as my Thesis. I divorced George in 1981, & re-married my current husband, Jim David Petty Ph.D. in 1984. I lived with him & Jason in Columbia, until we moved out of state to Las Vegas, NV., for 2 years & then to Ft. Collins, CO., for 2 years, & then Jim & I moved BACK to Columbia, MO., in 1991. (Yep, Jason got to stay behind & graduate from Western High School in Las Vegas, NV.!) When we returned to Columbia, I went back to school & received another B.S. in Occupational Therapy/Health Related Professions where I'm extremely PROUD to say I graduated, Summa Cum Laude from UMC.

I have always LOVED horses & singing, so eventually, I combined the two in pretty much, a life-long devotion to both. I bought a MO Foxtrotter and showed her for 12 years in 19 different versatility events, while singing the National Anthem at many of the horse shows we attended. I branched out while taking lessons from a wonderful piano & vocal teacher & have now written/co-written 3 songs that are available on CD Baby with her! One is called "Esther's Prayer", & the other two are named; "Hope's Wish" & "Angel in Disguise". A movie called Hope's Wish WAS scheduled to begin filming the past April but plans were scraped when Alcon (Blind Side) got into financial trouble. We PRAY that it will someday still be filmed, however, and if so, one or both of them will be used in Hope's movie. Google Hope's Wish if you want to find all about Hope & the "STORY OF HER WISH"!
Jim & I love to go Trout Fishing, & to Live Theater! I LOVE to travel (he's burnt out as he's traveled the entire world already for the Federal Government) and have to if I want to see my Mom, & Sister/family (San Diego), Brother/S-I-L/family in Ft. Collins), & Son/family (Las Vegas). I still LOVE horses, but finally sold my show horse & now just BEG my friends to as me to go trail riding with them.

My mom & dad moved to Signal Mountain when I was a Senior in High School :(, yea, that WAS really PAINFUL, so I don't know too many of my 1970 CHS classmates. But I did begin dating Greg McConnell who was a close neighbor of ours on Signal Mountain during the summer before school started. He was a good looking, clean-cut kid, short hair, no beard or mustache etc. So was I ever SURPRISED when I stepped foot into CHS & found out that HE WAS A HIPPIE! He had a group of friends that were "Hippie" in "every" sense & I was quite literally, "Blown Away"! His "cover" was "blown". I guess that might be one of the reasons we didn't stay together too long once our Senior year of school began!