MS SOUTH CAROLINA SENIOR AMERICA 2018,
MARLISA KAY SMALL

CONGRATULATIONS to MARLISA KAY SMALL, Ms South Carolina Senior America 2018, and Special Thanks to State Administrator Connie Ross-Karl and Co-Administrators Ida Brinkley, Ms South Carolina 2010, and Laura McFayden, Ms South Carolina 2012, for a wonderful State Queen!

Performer Marlisa Kay Small has always been a versatile singer, but her mainstream career has really blossomed during her “Age of Elegance,” as she was nominated by Artists Music Guild for the 2018 Heritage Awards Female Vocalist of the Year and Main Stream Artist of the Year. She has recently sung with the likes of the international-favorite beach-music band The Embers, Age of Aquarius' Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., The Tymes, the Coasters and Grammy & Emmy-award-winner David L. Cook.

She is a featured performer for events and signature restaurants around the entertainment capital of South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, including the 100-plus-year-old landmark Brentwood and Antonio's on the popular Cherry Grove Beach. She is a crowd-pleaser for locals and for tourists from all over the world! She can sing anything and can do so upon request!

Patriot Marlisa is a supporter of the regional Veterans Center. She is renown for not only singing but for perfecting a personalized and memorable arrangement of the National Anthem. She is tapped from events to city halls to national holidays to bring the nation's song home for America and tears to the eyes of appreciative audiences! Her version is a must-hear for every proud citizen.

Philanthropist Marlisa was also nominated for the 2018 Heritage Awards Humanitarian of the Year Award and at the Camp Kemo Gala in Myrtle Beach in June was presented the prestigious VOICE Award for her work for children with cancer. Her nationwide loving charity Bold & Beautiful Wigs for Cancer gives a free wig to anyone in treatment for cancer. A poignant visit to her wig shop this spring was from one of the candidates for Ms. North Carolina Senior America 2018 who had lost her hair but not her battle with the disease. She was presented the perfect wig as her crowning glory to wear in that state pageant. “It was this very real Senior America moment that brought home to me the power of the Ms. Senior America Pageant to promote the dignity and value of America's seniors and others,” Marlisa said.

She is a member of the North Myrtle Beach Women's Club and serves on the board as a liaison for South Carolina House of Representatives. She was named a Rotarian of the Year and was recognized for her fund-raising successes for the North Strand Homeless Shelter. She received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award in 2017.

Businesswoman Marlisa, owner of Marlisa’s Wig Studio & Day Spa, lives and works in the historic Hamlet of Little River SC. She was diagnosed in 1991 with cancer and is a 27-year survivor of stage 4 cancer. She is not defined by this but inspired by the strength and courage she sees in other survivors and by the love of her family. Through determination and endless work, she is now one of the great entrepreneurs of the Grand Strand, plus loving wife to David, mother of 6, grandmother of 13, sister and inspiring and giving friend to so many.