Barbara Mandrell works in a Nashville recording studio.

By Joe Edwards

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A steel rod stretches in her

right leg from her knee to her hip. Bones shattered in five places in her right ankle still

ache at times. "It's a miracle I still have my legs," says entertainer Barbara Mandrell, who calls her survival of a Sept. 11, 1984 auto

accident the inspiration to make 1986 her comeback year. She may not be able to zip around the stage as she once did, but her country

voice is still entrancing. "My voice is still hot, powerful, big," she said proudly. "When I get behind the mike, the voice is

strong."

In January and February, she'll star in the TV movie, "A Question of Guilt." In the spring, she is eyeing her first concert

tour since the accident that left her hospitalized for 19 days, killed the teen-age driver of the other car and sapped her nearly indestructible

savvy.

"We're in the midst of working it out," she said about forthcoming concerts. "I knew how much the fans loved me, but I never realized

how much I loved the fans. I miss them so much.'* For Mandrell, the past year has been a mercurial blend of emotions that would make fine

fodder for the most wrenching country tune imaginable. First, there was the accident. She suffered a severe concussion, a broken right leg, a

broken right ankle and a badly injured knee. While in the hospital, she found out the other driver, Mark White, 19, had died. She said she broke

down. Only a huge outpouring of get-well cards -- said by postal officials to be the most ever received in Nashville -- made the normally perky

performer feel better. She went through physical therapy and hobbled around on crutches for weeks. "I didn't want to do anything." she

recalled about the post-accident depression. "Nothing mattered. The only thing I requested to do was something about seat belts."

She has said that wearing seat belts saved her life

and those of her children, Matthew, then 14, and Jaime, then 8, who suffered lesser injuries.

She has just taped public service announcements for

radio and TV, urging the public to fasten their seat belts. In September, she gave birth to

her third child, Nathaniel Mandrell Dudney. However, the joy was marred by negative public reaction against her for filing a $10.3 million lawsuit

against White's estate to collect insurance. She was

vilified in letters to newspaper editors and on radio phone-in shows. "I can not comment

on the suit, on the advice of attorneys," she said. "It's like a line from one of my favorite gospel songs, 'You will understand it better by and by."'

Mandrell had reached the height of her diverse

career when the accident happened. She had become the first person to win the Country Music

Association's' entertainer of the year award twice -- 1980 and 1981. She and her sisters, Louise and lrlene, starred in an NBC-TV variety show.

"Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters," in 1980-81 She recorded a slew of country hits. including "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,"

"I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" and "Woman to Woman." In 1982, she was voted favorite all-around female entertainer in the

People's Choice awards. Mandrell, a Houston native who was raised in Oceanside, Calif., learned to read music before she could read words.

She has not appeared in concert since the accident.

the Journal Times Thursday, Nov. 14, 1985 Racine, Wis 3C

Mandrell

Singer eyes comeback