Front Page News...

Yea... Don't get it twisted tho... I'm friends with the entire town on Facebook!

One great article by a young lady whom I've never met (yes we're still fb friends anyway). Enjoy since I'm sure you won't be receiving a copy of the Garden County News any time soon. Let me know what you think! :)


Where Are They Now? Mary Beth Pinckney
By Destinee Belden

Born on January 14th in the year 1986, Mary Beth Pinckney came into the world in Terrell, Texas. On the way to the hospital, a day prior to her birth, Mary Beth's biological father, Gary Robert Pinckney was tragically killed in a car accident on his way to the hospital to help his wife through labor.

In that single instant, Mary Beth's life would be forever effected by the loss of a man that she would never have the honor of knowing. A man she would've called "dad" was stolen from her before she even knew the meaning of the word.

At the age of twenty-four, her mother, Beth was a widow and a first-time mother all in a matter of days.

Twenty-four is an age for many to begin "the rest of their life", building up from the dreams they have acquired over the years.

Beth and Gary shared many dreams together. Some had already been ful-filled, such as starting a business and building a home together. Meanwhile, some dreams were just budding into reality, like the large family they were planning to have, starting with baby Mary Beth.

In mere moments, those visions and dreams shattered as the man that she had come to love and call a husband was ripped from her life, leaving her to walk the uncertain road of parent-hood alone. Despite all that, Beth was able to pick herself up, force herself to move on to take care of her new daughter and the business and home she had built with Gary.

Mary Beth sees her mother as her "guiding light" and an inspiration, saying that she has always been a very strong and independent woman; she had to be.

Using words including, simple, pure, amazing and honest to describe her mother on her website, http://pink-knee.com, Mary Beth relays, "Her truth can be brutal but it has given me the tough skin I embrace and an independence no one can win."

Pinckney feels that the greatest lesson that she took from her family growing up is that when things get tough you have to get back on your feet and do what you have to do to make it.

1995 brought Beth and new husband, Dan Evasco to our courteous little town of Oshkosh with young Mary Beth at their side.

In 2002, when Pinckney was just a young high school girl, she unburied a year old Sony Mavica from the family's "junk closet."

It was the first time that Mary Beth would truly see the world of potential through the lens of a camera. She experimented with the camera all over Oshkosh, steadily molding her skills as a photographer as she taught herself the craft.

"The photography itself is metamorphic;" Pinckney expounds on her photography website, " from black and white to color, from landscapes to urban, from still life to real life. I strive for the honest simple truth. In life, love and photography."

In 2004, Mary Beth found herself preparing to enter a new world upon graduating from Garden County High School, and in May she was free from her prior education to take her life whichever direction she wanted to go.

Off she went to the buzzing city of Lincoln to attend UNL where she worked towards a major in marketing and a minor in communication studies.

While working hard at her education, Mary Beth also found time to pursue her love for photography, doing some modeling and make-up for photo shoots and fashion shows as well.

John Gawley found his way into Pinckney's circle of friends as their hobbies coaxed their paths to cross.

Pinckney illustrates Omaha's fashion scene as a "submerged, but emerging" industry. There are many small fashion shows all over Omaha as the year goes by, but many of them are not highly publicized, resulting in audiences of mainly friends and family of the designers.

In September, every year, one major fashion show does take hold of Omaha; Omaha Fashion Week. Omaha Fashion week consists of various small fashion shows over the course of a week, followed by a huge show on Saturday.

Taking it upon themselves to document the event via photography.

The pair got to talking and soon the idea of a large spring show was born.

Why not make Omaha the fashion capital of the Midwest? Why not push the envelope, by adding a spring show to be competitive with other fashion forward cities? More shows equals more recognition, notes Pinckney.

To make this dream a reality, Mary Beth and John have put their heads together, putting in more hours than you could imagine into planning the event, finding a place to hold it, getting sponsorship and donations to pay for expenses, finding models, make-up artists, hair-stylists and designers to contribute to the show.

Making what began as a big idea into a smashing, successful event has been no easy task for the two.

Pinckney illustrates herself as the producer/director of the show, while Gawley is more of the director/producer, meaning that she handles the business end of the project.

Mary Beth is not afraid to admit that this world of artistry, make-up, hair, photography and runways, known as fashion, is indeed her passion.

"I'm...giddy," Pinckney explicates, with bubbly enthusiasm of the bliss and excitement she feels over her in-the-making fashion show. The sheer rush of the project lights the young woman up like fireworks to a 4th of July sky.

The twenty-four-year-old strongly believes that whether you care what you look like or not, you are participating in fashion. What you wear is your personal self-expression of your own style, whatever it may or may not be.

"Short. Average. Tall. Small. Medium. Large. Young or Old," that is the O! Fashion slogan, because no matter who you are or what shape you are, you are a participant in fashion.

In addition to dedicated a multitude of man hours to the Spring Green Fashion Fling, O! Fashion's first annual spring fashion show, Pinckney has been working the job she actually gets paid for, agent at Mutual of Omaha, as well.

Aware of what struggles she could be facing in her life, Mary Beth often looks to her mom for inspiration when she begins to feel overwhelmed, reminding herself of the dilemmas Beth was dealing with at the age of twenty-four.

"24," Pinckney muses in her blog at http://pink-knee.blogspot.com/, " Its a number that has scarred me for years."

At an age when her mother lost so much of her youthful aspirations, Mary Beth can not help but wonder, "What will 24 bring for me?"

"24. A new city and career. Fame and Fashion. Love?"

Described by her former peers as "dramatic", Mary Beth Pinckney has never been one to blend into the background, and the way things are going, it does not seem likely that that will be happening any time soon.

For more information on Mary Beth Pinckney or the upcoming fashion show, look on http://ofashion.squarespace.com, http://pink-knee.blogspot.com/, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-O-Fashion-Show/182356806659, or http://pink-knee.com where the ambitious young woman features her photography.