Trying to share who Wanette is in just a few words is not easy. She is a Music Recording Artist, an Author, former Minister of Music and Pastor and also a performing Patsy Cline Impressionist, with an interesting background and a beautiful testimony of redemption. "My life has not been a bed of roses though, there has been many trials and challenges to overcome, but God is faithful and He gives me purpose today," says Wanette.
Wanette grew up in church, the daughter and granddaughter on both sides of the family of ministers and began singing at a very young age with her parents and siblings. She began her professional career at the age of 15 as a paid demo singer for record labels and songwriters in the Nashville area. The irony of this is she lost hearing in one ear at the age of six to a childhood accident and being a vocalist with only one working ear throughout the years has been part of Wanette's testimony of God's active grace ordering her footsteps. It is hard to imagine the success she has had with such an obstacle to work around. "The true miracle in all this is not that God restored hearing in that ear, but that He made the way for me to do it in spite of this and shows me every day that His plans for our lives 'will not be deterred' because He loves us is so much," she says.
Wanette has been fortunate to share a stage with other great artists such as Tony Orlando, Glen Campbell, Vern Gosdin, Boxcar Willie, Mitch Ryder, Randy Houser, Little Texas, Brenda Lee, Debra Moreno, Mary Lou Turner, Freddy Hart and Jim Owen, just to name a few.
Theatre in early 1992.
at the Kentucky Opry
"I was angry and hurting over my personal losses. I developed trust issues from my pain in my personal life and also my spiritual life (if you can understand that), but God showed me that His plan was for my good and that all He needed from me was my willingness to yield, to trust and offer a humble heart and He would restore what the enemy stole from me," Wanette continues.
After 12 years of being single, God gave Wanette her husband, Jeff. "Jeff was God's restoration gift over my life," says Wanette. "He loves my son as his own and has been a godly example and such a blessing to my family. After what we've both been through in life, God has given us a tremendous desire to love and encourage those who feel their lives are not redeemable. We are examples of His restorative power and that God's Grace is still working miraculously today! Our desire is to be used by the Lord to encourage and let others know that they matter and are relevant to Jesus!" She and Jeff have a strong burden to reach outside the Church walls to be a light in darkness and are seeking God, even now for His daily plan. They spend time mentoring others. "We want to do all we can to raise up the next generation to be 'true' worshippers of God and we want them to know who God has called them to be in this culture and this generation," they share. "We are living in a time that requires much more of us than it did by past leadership to be effective for the Kingdom of God. The things that worked 50 years ago in the early holiness movement of our grandfather's era don't move people today. We are finding that authenticity is important and 'showing' the love of Christ is even more effective than our words. Our actions must lead the way and tell the story of LOVE," says Jeff.
About Wanette
In her late 20's and early 30's, music took her away from Nashville and she began her live performance career as a featured vocalist in tourist towns such as Branson, MO, Pigeon Forge, TN and Myrtle Beach, SC. She was honored to work with such legendary artists as Cristy Lane (One Day At a Time), Ferlin Husky (On the Wings of a Snow White Dove), Jim Stafford (Spiders & Snakes), Jim Owen Morning Show and was a featured performer at Silver Dollar City, The Mickey Gilley Theatre, Mutton Hollow, The Cristy Lane Theater, The Grand Palace, The Branson Gospel Hour and many more over the years.
Wanette and Jeff
Jeff and Wanette with Press Secretary for the U.S. President, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Governor Mike Huckabee, host of HUCKABEE that tapes and airs on TBN.
asked how he wanted to be remembered.
In 1997, after touring and working in the secular music industry, Wanette went through a time of spiritual reconciliation as God began to transform her mind and heart after a series of difficult experiences. She came back from the music business injured and in need. After the miraculous birth of her only child and a failed marriage, God brought her full circle back to her roots and she has been in active ministry since then.
"I think it's important to mention that some of those early years in music ministry, I made lots of mistakes," says Wanette. "I told God I didn't want the responsibility or the calling, due to those bad choices and I wasn't worthy of it. He was trying to teach me something. God wasn't looking for my perfection, but my repentant heart and obedience. I don't know why we make it so hard to understand or receive GRACE. I also had a death in the family of a loved one that brought me to a divine appointment, a moment when God spoke to me and told me change was coming and it was time to yield."
Wanette Robertson Turner
Cover of Wanette's Book, based on
see her in Branson at the Jim Stafford
Wanette is the Events & Audience Producer for HUCKABEE, a weekly variety show that airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, hosted by former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee.
If you would like to contact Wanette, email her at wanetteturner@gmail.com.
official website
Wanette also began her career as a Patsy Cline impressionist in the early 90's while working in multiple shows, with great success, beginning in the "Jim Owen Morning Show" and then headlining in a Branson Afternoon Show, "Mirror Images" as legendary Patsy. Wanette is still available as Patsy for your event today. "I love the opportunities the Lord affords me to be a witness in the secular music industry as a Christ Follower and my community. God calls us to be salt and light in this world and I pray that my life remains 'salty' if that makes sense, for the sake of the Cross," says Wanette.
the response this preacher had when someone
Wanette performing as Patsy Cline
Wanette with her Father during a visit to
Turner
In 2009 Wanette wrote a book entitled "The Man Who Loved Souls" that was the fulfillment of a childhood promise.
This biography, based on the hidden memoirs of a mountain preacher, has been life-changing for readers. Wanette
encourages anyone who is interested in the holiness movement of the early 1900s and the entertaining and
miraculous adventures of a backwoods mountain preacher, to get this book! The foreword was written by Rev. Darlene
Bishop of mega-ministry, Solid Rock Church, Monroe, OH, whose own salvation story is intertwined with this mountain
preacher. You can go online at www.themanwholovedsouls.com to read more about him and enjoy the many comments
of those who walked with him over the decades in ministry, establishing nearly 80 churches in his lifetime.