On the morning of September 14, 1984, Bar-

bara Mandrell awoke on a natural high. She

had several hit records, hundreds of sold-

out concerts, a smash television show, a fan

club 10,000 members strong, and her first

movie scheduled for release that month.

The next day she regained consciousness

in a hospital bed--crippled, her memory

gone. A near-fatal highway accident seemed

to have stripped her of her dreams. The

world said her career was over. But the world

was wrong. Still intact was Barbara s will to

survive and climb ever upward. Drawing on

a boundless determination and abiding faith

in God and the American public, she

worked, through the pain and despair--and

climbed to the top again.

This is a moving account of one woman s

rise to fame, and of her struggle to retain

that fame when a devastating accident nearly

wrested it from her. Skillfully told in inti-

mate detail, Charles Paul Conn s examina-

tion of Barbara s life and career confirms

that in the eat- em-up world of show busi-

ness, not only does Barbara Mandrell sur-

vive, she triumphs.