Showdown at the hoedown!
Police called after ex-beauty queen, 73, bombards country fan with ‘nasty’ post
IT’S A tale of woe that perhaps wouldn’t sound out of place in one of Dolly Parton’s plaintive numbers.
A 73-year- old former Miss Norwich has been warned that she faces a restraining order if she doesn’t stop writing ‘abusive and nasty’ letters to fellow country music fan Mike Delph.
Mr Delph, 64, singer and guitarist with Norfolk band The Mustangs, called police in after choreographer June Wilson sent him almost 70 missives in six months.
To begin with, all had been sweetness and light, with the pair discussing performing together around Norfolk.
However, in what has been dubbed the ‘Hoedown Showdown’, a misunderstanding over a lift to a venue led to a dramatic breakdown in relations. Mrs Wilson insisted that her letters were only intended to help Mr Delph improve his band and introduce dance moves for the audience, instead of what she feels is inappropriate ‘jigging’ at his concerts.
In a parting shot yesterday, she added: ‘I think he is just jealous of my knowledge of country music.’
Meanwhile, semi-retired accountant Mr Delph told the Mail he had been shocked by her ‘incredibly rude’ letters and now just wanted ‘to get on with the music’.
The pair met at a Norwich cafe in June last year after Mr Delph heard that Mrs Wilson was looking to set up an event for country music fans.
After she watched one of his gigs, Mr Delph, whose band regularly plays to as many as 150 fans around the county, agreed that she could teach dance techniques such as the western waltz, Texas two- step and country swing the following month during the interval of a performance at Hellesdon Community Centre.
But after Mrs Wilson failed to turn up, she blamed Mr Delph, saying he had offered her a lift.
He insists this was never discussed, and would have been impossible in any event because the three vehicles the band uses are always full of instruments and equipment. This was the trigger for the letters, which the father-ofthree said lambasted his band – and even his waistline.
Mr Delph, of Drayton, also claims the letters – some a dozen pages long – indicated that his would-be collaborator wanted a romantic relationship with him and that he should leave his wife. ‘Her letters are abusive, nasty and we’ve had enough,’ he said. ‘She even sent me a bill for £250 for buying a phone. She also charged me for postage.’
He added: ‘Who is Mrs Wilson to tell me how to run my events? If she doesn’t like them, why is she so desperate to come along and interfere with how we do it?’
Police turned up at Mrs Wilson’s home in Norwich on January 20 after Mr Delph reported the barrage of letters.
She has since spoken of the fallout, claiming she was merely ‘being honest’ and trying to help, having learned to stage ‘authentic’ country events in the US state of South Carolina, where she lived with her second husband.
‘Yes, I have sent him letters, but I was just telling the truth,’ she said. ‘I wanted to help him make his band and his club better. I also wanted to have the opportunity to teach there, too, because everyone there was just jigging about and not dancing in traditional style.’
Norfolk Police said it was contacted on January 12 about ‘unwanted contact’. A spokesman added: ‘All parties were spoken to and it was established no crime had been committed.’
‘He’s just jealous of my knowledge’