Mark Chesnutt to headline Little family benefit concert

Jayne Boykin

DUNCAN — This is the second of a two-part series on the Little family and the country singer who is volunteering his services to help them cope with the expenses incurred by the illness of their son.



One of country music’s most recognizable voices, Mark Chesnutt, has come forward to donate his time and talent to perform at the Kendrick Little Benefit Concert. This charitable effort has been organized for the benefit of Kendrick Little, a 5-year-old boy who is fighting a brave but losing battle with high-grade glioma (HGG), a rare and fatal form of brainstem cancer that affects nearly 300 children per year.

The concert will be held at July 26 at the Asbury Complex in Comanche. Proceeds from the benefit will be dedicated to assist the family with Kendrick’s expenses. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. Miss Comanche Morgan Harper will kick the show off at 4 p.m. The Terry Allen Band will perform from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., and Chesnutt will take the stage at 6 p.m.

Kendrick is the son of longtime Duncan and Comanche resident Allen Little and his wife, Alicia, who now live in Wichita Falls, Texas, where Little is an assistant pastor of Victory Baptist Church. Little grew up in Bible Baptist Church in Duncan, and has preached there many times. Alicia Little is a former substitute teacher in Comanche Public Schools.

With loving support and strength from family and friends, Kendrick has been fighting an intrinsic brainstem high-grade glioma tumor since Thanksgiving of last year. The deadly tumor originated in his brainstem and flowered to the left hemisphere of his brain. Kendrick underwent an intense, more than 13-hour surgery after the initial diagnosis, in which doctors removed 65 percent to 70 percent of the tumor. After Kendrick completed a 30-day course of radiation therapy, the tumor was found to have further reduced, surprising doctors, as this optimum result has not been achieved in prior cases with this type of cancer.

There is no cure for HGG. Kendrick’s physician, who has consulted with top cancer specialists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., has surmised Kendrick’s life span to be 12-18 months.

The medical bills the family has incurred while fighting this battle are insurmountable. Seeing a need for assistance, Kendrick’s grandmother, Gean Ann Badgwell, contacted Chesnutt’s manager and received an immediate “Yes, let’s do this.”

“This event is special for me and I am honored to help this family,” Chesnutt said in a statement to Badgwell. “With three young and healthy kids, it is hard to think about what little Kendrick and his family are going through. My thoughts and prayers are with them all as they live day-to-day fighting this silent killer.”

Family has always been important to Chesnutt. According to his official biography, he got his start in the honky-tonks of Beaumont, Texas, learning from his father, Bob Chesnutt, a singer, record collector and major fan of classic country music. Playing alongside his dad, Chesnutt embraced his father’s influence one set at a time and began making a name for himself.

The elder Chesnutt often traveled to Nashville to record and to broaden his exposure. He began taking his son along to record when Mark was just 17. After nearly a decade of recording on regional labels, word got out about the young country vocalist.

“Music Row executives came to hear Mark on his own Texas turf and recognized the depth of Mark Chesnutt’s raw talent. In 1989, he was signed to MCA Nashville and his list of accolades tells the rest of his story. With the release of his first single ‘Too Cold At Home,’ Mark established himself as one of country’s most authentic and talented vocalists. He won the CMA Horizon Award, attracting the attention of country legend [and Mark’s greatest mentor] George Jones, who introduced him as ‘A boy from Beaumont, Texas, who is the real deal,’” his bio says.

Mark Chesnutt is a country music industry veteran, having performed at various benefit concerts throughout his 19-year career. To date, he has four platinum albums, five gold albums, 14 No. 1 singles and 23 Top 10 singles to his name. Chesnutt’s most recent release, “She Never Got Me Over You” (written by Keith Whitley/Dean Dillon/Hank Cochran and produced by Jimmy Ritchey) is classic, “must hear” music and is receiving overwhelming applause from country music fans young and old. It is the last song Keith Whitley wrote and comes from Chesnutt’s latest CD project, “Rollin’ With The Flow” (Lofton Creek Records).

The Asbury Complex is at 410 Second Street in Comanche. Tickets are $50 per person, and must be purchased in advance. No tickets will be sold at the door the day of the show. For ticket information or to learn how to make a contribution to assist Kendrick and his family, call his grandmother at 580-656-8173.

The Littles speak candidly about their ordeal and the faith that will bring them through it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHSplrORPOE.

Chesnutt’s Web site is www.markchesnutt.com.

Text Only