Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 20, 1991                   TAG: 9104200353
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEOPLE

Early in his concert Thursday night at the Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix, Sinatra said: "I hope the next time she is crossing a street, four blind guys come along driving cars.

"You should not degrade the president's wife in Washington. She is a great lady."

Sinatra concluded his salvo by saying if Kelly were a man, "someone would be whacking her out every 15 minutes."

\ Bill Moyers, the public television producer, and country singer\ Willie Nelson were among this year's recipients of Wilbur Awards from the Religious Public Relations Council.

All told, 24 Wilburs were announced Thursday at the council's national convention.

Nelson was honored for a recording that combined an original song with a reading of the war prayer written by Mark Twain. Sent out without a copyright, Nelson encouraged individuals, organizations and radio stations to copy and distribute it.

Moyers won in the national television programs category for "Amazing Grace with Bill Moyers," which took a new look at the old song.

The council has given awards to journalists for excellence in religious news coverage since 1949. The Wilbur Awards were started in 1982, in honor of the Rev. Marvin C. Wilbur, who was executive secretary of the council for 27 years.

\ Tammy Wynette was in a St. Louis hospital Friday with severe stomach pain, and doctors believe the cause may be either a gallstone or inflammation of scar tissue from surgery done years ago.

Her publicist, Evelyn Shriver, said by telephone from Nashville, Tenn., that she was unsure how long Wynette would remain at the hospital or what her exact condition was.

Wynette canceled an appearance Friday night in Denver, Shriver said.

The 48-year-old Nashville star was stricken with stomach pains Thursday afternoon while riding in a private bus caravan in southern Illinois. She was taken to Belleville Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Ill., and transferred later Thursday to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

Wynette, a native of Tupelo, Miss., popularized the songs "Stand By Your Man" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E." In March, she performed before President Bush and other dignitaries at a gala Washington celebration of America's victory in the Persian Gulf War.

\ Herb Alpert, back at his old high school in Los Angeles to honor a faculty member, says teachers should be lauded as American heroes.

"When we see how much money we pay to sports figures, sitcom stars and rock'n'roll legends, it makes you wonder why teachers' salaries are at the bottom of the ladder," the musician said at Fairfax High School on Thursday.

Alpert presented a $10,000 check from the Herb Alpert Foundation to George Zograsos, a 35-year teacher selected for the award by a committee made up of students, teachers, a parent and school administrator.

It is time "we begin to place our public school teachers closer and closer to the top of the list of American heroes - where they truly belong," Alpert said.

Alpert, once leader of the Tijuana Brass and co-founder of A&M Records, founded the non-profit foundation in 1980.