Always capable of sounding the perfect note, Denise Renter’s heartfelt tribute to Stars Over Wimberley co-founder, Randy Renter, provided family, friends and fans a fitting celebration of his life with performers Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt and Ginger and Roland Brown.
The evening began with thoughtful remarks by Chick Morgan who, along with longtime friend and admirer Pat Green, led the entire room in a toast to Randy who was remembered as “the best listener in the world” and “he made the music play.”
In the lobby of the Wimberley Playhouse were photos, articles and a framed quote that read, “When I die, let them judge me by my company of friends.”
Taking the stage first were Roland and Ginger Brown, introduced by Morgan as “fellow Kerverts” who, like Randy, hailed from Kerrville.
By the end of their brief set, the audience was treated to Ginger’s delicious voice on her original, “‘90s Country Song.”
After a brief intermission, Elkin and Schmidt took the stage and throughout their performance, they recalled key moments when Randy entered their lives – at the couple’s first meeting at the Kerrville Folk Festival and the moment they sang their very first song together.
As the pair sang, Randy’s company of friends closed their eyes and leaned into tender strands of poetry: “let us plant seeds in our scars” and “his notes found their way through the velvet chambers of my heart” and “he was the tick and I was the tock.” Just as we began to atomize into the ether, Elkin told an extremely funny story about her late father, a penny collector. With perfect timing, Elkin looked at Schmidt and deadpanned, “We didn’t know the extent of it.”
It turned out that her father’s passion amounted to three tons of pennies neatly rolled in coin sleeves. Coming close to bottoming out her Honda Fit taking a partial load to the bank, the pair learned that banks no longer accepted rolled coins. Crestfallen by the news, they began a very long game of unrolling pennies and putting them in change machines. “Four banks and two states later,” Elkin quipped as the room erupted into the wonderful freedom of laughter.
And so a memorable evening passed. Laughter and grief for a well-regarded man collided time and again under the watch of the Elkin- Schmidt team until it was time to go.
