| Q: Tell us more about your new cookbook, "Ralna English Family Cookbook." |
| A: This is something my sisters and I have wanted to do for a long time. It was a big project, but something we feel will remain as a part of our legacy, especially to our children. We hope you will enjoy these family recipes, along with our nostalgic family photos, all collected in one place. In fact, I ran across so many wonderful photos, that we decided to add even more to the cookbook than originally planned. Just as "Ralna English: From My Heart" came straight from my heart, so this cookbook has come straight from from my heart, along with my sisters Sharon and Jane. |
| Q: You're celebrating a big birthday on the cruise to Alaska. Will any of your family be on the cruise? |
| A: I'm so exciting to tell you that our daughter Julie, Guy's sister Joye and her husband, my sisters Sharon and Jane and their husbands, and so many friends and fans are coming on the cruise that it will be one of the most special times of my life. I am thrilled and can't wait to celebrate with everyone. |
| Q: How do you learn music? Do you play the piano? And how do you get the music? |
| A: I get sheet music if I'm learning a new song. I do have a piano and play enough to learn the song and determine the key in which I will sing. It's a process…and I usually learn the lyrics and then write them down from memory to make sure I have it. |
| Q: Did you or you and Guy ever lip-sync your solos on "The Lawrence Welk Show?" |
| A: I never did, but I think Guy & I may have lip-synched once, possibly. And I don't even remember why. We always sang live on the show. |
| Q: Someone said that if you didn't hold a microphone, you were lip-syncing. |
| A: We had what was called a boom mike over us and it picked up our vocals. You couldn't see it on camera, but it was there and in fact, because our show was "live," on rare occasions you might catch a glimpse of it hanging above us. |
| Q: How do you like living in Scottsdale? |
| A: I've died and gone to heaven! I've never been so happy in a place in my life! |
| Q: Are you going to retire? |
| A: Never, probably. I will slow down and I also will not do "long stints" anymore. No more one nighters, either. But retire, no! It's not natural to someone like me. |
| Q: From everything I have heard Ralna, you come from a really neat family. What do your sisters do and do you have any nieces and nephews? |
| A: My older sister travels with her husband...they are retired. My younger sister is a make-up artist in Hollywood. I have one nephew and one niece who live in Texas. |
| Q: When you travel, do you handle your own wardrobe? The beaded dresses that are so beautiful have to be heavy. Do you have someone with you to do the personal things, such as hair, make-up or do you do all of this on your own? |
| A: I do my own hair and make-up -- all of us do when we're on the road. We also carry our own wardrobe except on the Live Lawrence Welk Tours with Rocklands Entertainment. In that case, we take our costumes after each show and put them in wooden wardrobe cases to be shipped to the next city. |
| Q: When you were younger, were you ever in a beauty contest? |
| A: No, but thanks for your question. |
| Q: Your new Christmas CD is one of my favorites ever! Do you have plans for future recordings? I hope so! |
| A: No plans as of now. |
| Q: Where does the name "Ralna" come from? |
|
A:
"Many people have asked about
how I got my name, specifically a few of my namesakes. My mother, Lena Belle, was a very impressionable teenager who read a series of romantic novels, called the "Whiteoak" series, 16-volumes of 100 years of the wealthy Whiteoak family. The series, written by French-Canadian Mazo de la Roche, contained one particular book about a plantation in Canada called Jalna. My mother's intention was to name her daughter Jalna, but when she married my dad Raul, it became Ralna." |