88-year-old Addison native makes the “X Factor” cut
As a relative helped her down the Sears Centre Arena's steps, 88-year-old Mary Tanner waved to the small crowd watching her.
“I made it!” she yelled with a beaming smile.
Tanner, an Addison native who now lives in Aurora, Mo., sang “I Got Rhythm” for the judges during Wednesday's auditions for “The X Factor,” FOX's new singing competition show with no age limit and a $5 million record deal prize.
Before Tanner had finished, the judges handed the 4-foot-7½-inch white-haired, great-grandmother the golden “Congratulations!” letter, inviting her back to the next round of auditions Thursday. Cheers erupted in the stands, where others waited to audition.
“This is one time age was an asset!” Tanner said afterward, laughing.
A professional singer in the 1940s, Tanner said she was inspired to try out by a recent story in The Globe magazine about a singing show (not “The X Factor”). When she heard about “The X Factor” auditions in Hoffman Estates, she asked her grandchildren to check it out because she doesn't know how to use a computer.
“I said, ‘Why not give it a try?'” Tanner said. “Too many people get to a certain age and give up. You don't have to give up.”
Tanner waited out in the rain just like everyone else at 6 a.m. today, hovering under an umbrella with her grandson and great-granddaughter.
What motivated her to go through the grueling audition process was her desire to share her life story with others.
“At this stage in my life, fame isn't all that important to me,” said Tanner, who turns 89 in October. “This just might give me a chance to tell my story, and have I got a life story! You wouldn't believe some of the things I've done!”
That story, she said, includes efforts by her and her husband, a police commissioner, to take on a crime syndicate and corruption in Addison in the 1930s and '40s; working as a congressional aide; beating cancer at age 87; and caring for a son who has a brain injury.
“I just thought it'd be an inspiration to other people,” Tanner said. “My husband of 58½ years died in December of '09, and he'd have wanted me to go on. Life does go on.”
Her family says Tanner has always had a go-getter personality.
“She's a little spitfire. She always has been,” said her granddaughter, Gretchen Rodriguez, of Plano. “I'm so happy for her. She's having so much fun. This is awesome. I want her to run with it.”