Born at the half-century mark and, in her own words, "perfectly aged at the hormonally crazed juncture of 14 for the Beatles' emergence," Penny Valladares (née Stronach) has always defined her life in terms of two things: rock and roll. Penny saw the Beatles play in 1964 at the Kansas City Athletics' downtown ballpark; her parents footed the whopping $8.50 ticket so Penny could be relatively close to the Fab Four. That was just the beginning. In the '80s, Valladares owned the Backstage Café Catering Company, providing traveling stars with classically insane orders, such as pigs' knuckles for Count Basie and banana pudding for Bob Dylan. In fact, Penny's company inspired the famous Wayne's World M&M's bit: When Van Halen asked Penny and company to pick out all the brown and beige candies, the crew complied; word eventually got out, and comedy gold ensued. After retiring in 1990, Valladares moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and began work on her memoir, Rock and Roll Medicine. Now back in KC, she's an active blogger with her husband, Mark (Rockandrollstories.info), and stays involved in local music through various avenues. One of them includes being a supportive mom to her rocking son, the one and only Brodie Rush of the Beautiful Bodies and Be/Non.
