My sister Nanette was the third in the troupe of musicians produced by Eddie &
Frances Arata. By the time she was born, music was entrenched in our household.
Michael & I were taking singing lessons, singing onstage and recording regularly,
and I had begun playing trumpet in the St. Monica Elementary School Band. There
was a child-sized piano in the house, along with a bugle, some assorted drums and
other musical trinkets which became some of her earliest toys. We also had a hi-fi
set, and Dad had a bunch of LPs...many of which became the background music to
our lives. A few years after Nanette was born, Michael and I added a guitar and a
drumset which soon took over our lives.
That bugle in the house led Nanette to pick up a trumpet in 8th grade, and her
musical story began. Before she graduated from college, she had played for many
millions of people with the Auburn University Marching Band. During a time when
Michael and I were schlepping around vans full of equipment, driving hundreds of
miles to get them from one place to another, and playing in smoky bars for 100
people ‘til 2AM or later, Nanette would don her band uniform each Saturday, sit in
a stadium watching SEC football for free, and march around for fifteen minutes
playing her trumpet for 80,000 fans in the stadium and millions of others watching
on television. Go figure!
After graduating, she still played for a time, participating in community orchestras,
Auburn Band reunions, and maybe a Mardi Gras parade or two.
Then, there was her 20+ year career as a Disney artist where she delivered
thousands of drawings, sketches and custom character timepieces to many happy
families from all over the world. And her original designs were used for the limited-
edition Walt Disney World wristwatches commemorating Mickey Mouse’s 70th
birthday and for what would’ve been Walt Disney’s 100th birthday.
What a unstoried and uneventful life she has led...NOT!!!