Contestant's background comes from performing

     By Damon Hodge
     View staff writer
      Vicki Stich's entry in the Mrs. Senior Nevada Pageant is a chance to have some fun and return to the love of her life -- performing.
      "I'm not in it to win, frankly, I could care less about winning. I'm just excited about performing again," the Sun City resident said.
      Stich has spent the better part of her 70-plus years performing. Ironically, she's always had to be prodded to use her talent.
      A friend heard her voice and coaxed her into trying out for the July 30 and 31 Carson City pageant which scores contestants on talent not looks.
      Fifty-seven years earlier, it was her father, a Rabbi and church cantor, doing the pushing. He pushed his son Woody into becoming a singer and was overwhelmed one day by a satiny voice coming from his daughter's room.
      "One day he heard me sing. He picked up the phone book and called the William Morris Agency to set up an appointment. At the time it was one of the biggest talent agencies in New York," she said. "He asked for the head guy (William Morris) but he wasn't there. He ended up meeting (vice president) Hugo Morris and asked for 15 minutes of his time.
      " `I have a daughter who I think has talent and I want an expert opinion,' " she said, intoning her father's voice. "I sang `You made me love you.' "
      Stich impressed Hugo Morris, who encouraged her to get vocal training. She traveled from her Washington Heights neighborhood to her lessons and scored a 6-month nightclub gig with the Murray Miller Band before her agent teamed her with mid- and top-level stars to entertain American soldiers during World War II.
      After the war, Stich embarked on a six-year nightclub career mainly in the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The experience exposed her to stars-to-be like Della Reese and Vic Damone and in 1947 she headlined at a Baltimore theater around the block from comedy duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
      Motherhood sidelined her singing career but her husband Paul made sure she didn't stay there.
      "She has a beautiful voice ... I didn't want her gift to go to waste," Paul Stich said.
      He booked his wife into an Italian nightclub performance. In a few weeks, she was sandwiched between performances by Damone and Jerry Vale.
      Shortly after moving to Florida from Boston in 1983, she toyed with the idea of directing musicals until her husband hooked her into community theater.
      "It was something I wanted to do but I didn't know if I would be successful," Vickie Stich said. "I would have these dreams where I envisioned how the musical would unfold."
      She built a small choral group into a 25-member ensemble that packed community centers and theaters for their performances, produced a variety show and in 1991 directed the Cabaret, a musical comedy about the show's move from Florida to Las Vegas.
      "I had no idea we would actually be living here," said Stich, who has been living in Sun City for two years.
      Family health problems have prevented her from being more active locally, but Stich performed at the Starbright Theatre and is directing a skit for a July 4 celebration in Sun City.
      "It's funny, we moved to Las Vegas partly for health reasons and we end up getting sick," she said.
      The couple's daughter Lauren convinced them to relocate. Her story mirrors her mothers'.
      "I first heard my daughter sing in a high school play and I was blown away," Vicki Stich said.
      Now an executive assistant to the president of the Resort at Summerlin, Lauren Stich had a 1960s group called the Lauronettes. The all-girl group toured Atlantic City playing '60s-era tunes.
      "My mom has always been very talented," Lauren Stich said. "Sometimes she needs a little encouragement."