We have featured Marni O'Doherty's story of meeting Rick Springfield on our site for years. Marni was high powered Senior Vice President at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods in the World Trade Center. Her comments on being featured here, even though she appeared on TV and many websites for her work,were:

"I was asked by CNBC to write a column about bank earnings and they would put it up on the web site. Personally, I find "my first time with Rick" on the rs.net site much more thrilling, but I get paid for the bank stuff."

Marni perished in the September 11 attacks of 2001. She is greatly missed by her family, friends and a group of oddly collected people, many of whom never met her, from the Rick Springfield fan community. You can learn about Marni at the We Miss Marni tribute site. While no tribute can do this witty, intelligent, generous woman enough justice, we do hope you learn a bit more about this special woman who was taken from our world far too soon. Rick Springfield said once about people who had not met his father before he perished, "You missed a great man." For those of you who did not have the pleasure of knowing Marni, you missed a great woman.

 

We'll never forget her. Our prayers and best wishes to her husband and grieving family.

My parallel universe came to be on October 14th, 1999 - the first time I met Rick, up close and personal. It happened at an autograph signing at the Virgin Megastore in NY - Rick was in NY for a concert that Saturday at the Beacon Theater and then his two
week run in Smokey Joe's Cafe on Broadway. So let me just recap that I've totally loved this man since 1981 and when I
found myself standing 3 feet away from him, I kind of couldn't believe it. I know this sounds totally stupid, but...THERE HE WAS. It was a little surreal. So while I'd like to say that I walked up there and he and I had a lovely, coherent conversation about the quality of his music and songwriting, and perhaps the military coup in Pakistan that had occurred the week before, I'm sure I made no impression on him whatsoever. Which is a little sad, I guess, because he sure has made an impression on me, but its hard to convey 18 years of feeling and emotion in 90 seconds when your heart is pounding and you are more than a little starstruck. I patiently waited my turn while the girl in front of me got her picture taken, checking out Rick's totally adorable outfit consisting of: grey shirt, black cotton pants, black and white tennis shoes, those goofy white ankle socks, glasses (he's beautiful, by the way).

Suddenly the security guy said, "You're next." So up I march and say to Rick, oh-so-long-the-object-of-my-affection:
"Gosh, I've been waiting a long time for this." (Yes, I said "gosh." Not usually a word in my vocabulary, but this was a big moment.)
I had, oh, about 19 years worth of comments, observations and topics of discussion all stored up, but truth be told, when I was standing 3 inches away from him, my entire short-term and long-term memory bank went *poof*. So, rather dumbly, I simply handed him my Karma CD insert so he could sign it for me. So he's just sitting there with his Sharpie, poised, ready to write...and it felt like a really long moment before I realized he wanted to write my name and he didn't know what it was. Duh. I guess I figured that since I knew who he was, he'd know who I was, but that's kind of dopey I guess.

So he signed it: "Marni - love, Rick Springfield." Maybe he should have written "Marni Loves Rick Springfield" to be more accurate, but I'll take it.

Then he put his big ol' arm around me and I put my hand on his back. And just so we're clear, I PUT MY HAND ON HIS BACK. A simple, yet unimaginable gesture for the avid Solid Gold watcher in me of yesteryear, and yet there I was. Yippee. And it was a bit of a sweaty back, I don't mind telling you. We posed for a picture, and then I got really bold (well, bold for me, anyway) and kissed him on the cheek (and it was a bit of a sweaty cheek, I don't mind telling you). After the pic was taken, I said, "Good luck on Broadway next week." And HE said, "Thanks, sweetie." (hee hee - I'm in the sweetie club! I feel so special and so totally unspecial all at the same time!)
And then that was it.

Now - here's what I didn't do: I didn't really look him right in the face the whole time I was up there. Look at me - shy all of a sudden. I didn't really get to evaluate, up close and personal, the quality of his green eyes or his cool haircut (with pseudo-blond highlights - interesting). I didn't take a close-up view of his really pretty wedding band. I didn't fully appreciate just what a big guy he is. I didn't memorize his hands (that sounds goofy, but sometimes a man's hands...well, that's a discussion for another time.) I didn't really burn an imprint of him on my brain. In my memory now, its still Rick from 10 feet away, not from six inches. I kind of froze a bit. It was simply too much 13-year-old Marni overload.

In a way, the memory of it is sharper than the fuzziness of my vision when it was actually happening. In fact, I think it didn't really hit me until a few weeks later, when a co-worker of mine saw my Smokey Joe's Playbill on my desk at work and asked, "So, have you ever met Rick Springfield?" I paused....I smiled to myself....and then I responded rather casually, "Oh, yes. I've met him. Very nice guy. Smells like aftershave." The rest of the details I've saved for people who would really understand it.