April 16, 1971 - March 31, 1995 Called the Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla Perez was only 23 when she was shot and killed by her employee, Yolanda Saldivar. Abraham, Selena's father, left his job with Dow Chemicals to open a Mexican food restaurant, Papagayo, in Lake Jackson. He made sure it had a stage and a dance floor. Selena and the band performed on weekends and developed a local following. The band, named Selena Y Los Dinos, began performing in 1980.Three years later, they made their first recording. In 1987, she won "Female Vocalist of the Year" and "Performer of the Year" at the Tejano Music Awards, her first two of many such awards. She and her band continued to make many albums over the years. In 1993, she won a Grammy for Live, a recording of one of her concerts in Corpus Christi. In 1995, before her death, she was in the process of making her first English album, Dreaming Of You which would prove to be a huge crossover hit. In April, 1992, she was married to Chris Perez, a guitar player in the band. Her dream of designing clothes and opening a boutiqe became a reality in 1993 with the opening of "Selena Etc" in Corpus Christi, Texas. Nina Smith McGlashan, Selena's first-grade teacher at O.M. Roberts Elementary School, remembers her as a delightful child. "She had a very bubbly, positive-type of personality,She was eager to please and eager to learn. The type of little kid that you would like to have in a class. I remember, too, that she had a little shyness about her." The turning point in Selena's career came in 1989. Jose Behar, the former head of Sony's Latin music division, had just launched the EMI Latin label. He'd come to the Tejano Music Awards looking for new acts to sign. Selena was his first discovery. "I was with a friend of mine, Mario Ruiz, who's now the president of EMI Mexico," Behar says. "We were standing at the back of the auditorium when we saw her. Mario and I looked at each other like, `Wow. This is special.' "But I turned to him and I said, `It's interesting. Women don't sell in the Tejano market.' And they really hadn't. Yet I said to myself, `This is the crossover act I'm looking for.' She often performed in skin-tight pants and low-cut bustiers that led some to label her "the Mexican Madonna." But despite the comparisons, Selena wouldn't compromise her morals to further her career. She could be sexy onstage, but she was never vulgar. She once turned down a role in a Mexican soap opera because there was a scene that called for a steamy kiss. "I wouldn't be comfortable with that; she wouldn't be comfortable with that," Abraham said at the time. "Selena has an appeal with young kids, 5 to 10 years old, as well as older folks, you know." In Houston, Jefferson Davis High School student Christina Galvan delivered a speech at a campus tribute to Selena a few weeks after her death. "Now we know how our parents felt when Ritchie Valens died," she wrote. "Selena is our Ritchie Valens. She's our John Lennon. She's our Elvis. We'll always miss Selena. There will never be another queen of Tejano music." "You can't forget who bought your records and who put you there. Same thing with your fans. Just because they want your picture and everything, that's not much to ask for. It's flattering. I'm not going to lie to you. There are some times when you just feel like you're really tired and you don't want to but hey, a couple of seconds ain't going to hurt. I think that the contact is very important because you don't want to give people the impression that you're better than they are. Because I firmly believe that I'm normal like everybody else. As a matter of fact my dad has to get after me once in a while because I like to take off sometimes to the mall by myself. And it's scary sometimes. I've gotten in situations where people bother me when I'm by myself. And it's scary not having somebody there to protect you 'cause you never know. But I enjoy it. It's flatterin'.".... Selena talking about her fans in an interview. Selena is buried in Seaside Memorial Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. Special thanks to The Super Selena Website for allowing me to use these pictures! Click here to visit this great tribute to Selena.