Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130106
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
About 250 fans turned out for the ceremony Saturday on the site of the first $6 million, Victorian-style theater. She says she'll need another $14 million to build the other two. "I'm just hoping and praying I have a good tobacco crop to come up with all that money," Parton said.
Parton and city officials are hoping the 3,000-seat halls will make Pigeon Forge competitive with the likes of Nashville and Branson, Mo., another small town turned country music center. The first theater is expected to open April 1994, Parton said.
African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela picked up an honorary doctor of laws degree Sunday in Atlanta on the last stop of his 13-day U.S. tour.
Mandela, 74, is raising funds for the ANC in preparation for the end of apartheid in South Africa. He is widely expected to become the country's first black president. Elections are tentatively set for next spring.
In his speech at Clark University, where he accepted the honorary degree, Mandela said negotiators working to create the new nation "must guard against proposals that will demobilize democracy under the guise of power-sharing."
"We are, however, committed to safeguarding the rights of political and other discrete minorities," he said, calling for a bill of rights.
by CNB