How did 17-year-old Towson resident Kelly Wallis end up on the front page of The Tennessean newspaper with American Idol country singer Carrie Underwood?

A devoted fan since she saw Underwood audition for and then win Idol in 2005, Wallis couldn’t have asked for anything more. And the funny thing is she didn’t even ask for what she got.

“Carrie is my favorite singer,” said the teen about the platinum-selling performer known for her wholesome image. “I like everything she represents, and she is an incredible artist.”

So it was a treat for Wallis, a rising senior at Loch Raven High School, to be with her family in Nashville on June 4 for the 18th annual City of Hope Celebrity Baseball Challenge, knowing Underwood would be one of the players.

The event kicked off the 2008 Country Music Festival, and she was hoping for an autograph as she waited for Underwood with a group of fans by the third-base dugout.

“She was late,” Wallis said. “She was downstairs doing an interview, but when she did show up she came right over to us carrying her special bat.

“I asked to take a picture with her. ‘Of course,’ she said, and she was really sweet about it. And when I asked for an autograph, she gave me that, too.”

Kelly was so focused on the star that she didn’t realize anybody was taking her picture until a photographer inquired about her name and hometown.

She left with her family that night and didn’t find out about the newspaper photograph until a friend who had stayed in Nashville called her, screaming,
“You’re on the front page of The Tennessean with Carrie!”

“I couldn’t believe it,” Wallis said.

For weeks she couldn’t stop talking about Carrie Underwood. It got to the point that her friends got tired of it, she said. “They were excited for me, but I realized not everybody is a fan.”

The Tennessean front page, which is framed and displayed on her bedroom wall, is now her most treasured possession, she said.

It ranks higher, but only slightly, than her guitar, which was signed by Underwood, and the singer’s guitar pick, which is embossed with the name of her latest album, “Carnival Ride,” and now hangs from a simple chain that the teen wears around her neck.

Does Wallis have any desire to follow in Carrie Underwood’s footsteps?

“No,” she said. “I don’t have a voice. I can’t carry a tune to save my life. But she is the nicest person I have ever met.”

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