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"You can't sing that song, it's too religious"! Those were the words that began to turn the life of a teenage country singer around. Judy DeRamus had turned 19 years old. She had cut three records and a major recording contract was being discussed. Judy had just joined the "Tommy Collins Show" and was preparing to go on a world tour. Sam Phillips of "Sun Studio Fame" in Memphis, Tennessee, who first recorded Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and other well known artist was her promoter and agent. The year was 1975, and it was December, cold December, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The band had been involved in a wreck on the way to Cheyenne, and even though no one was seriously injured, this seemed to add mounting evidence in Judy's mind that she was in the wrong place. "One day at a time, sweet Jesus. That's all I'm asking from you." Someone had put a quarter in the jukebox, and the words to a new song blasted out into the crowded room. "Just give me the strength, to do every day what I have to do." Judy gasped. The song seemed to have been written especially for her. She had been raised in church, but having drifted so far from where God wanted her, it seemed that there was simply no way back, but yet, here a song was speaking to her. She did not know at the time that this very song, written by Marijohn Wilkin would be a driving force in her life for years to come. "Let's all welcome back to the stage, that little girl from Oklahoma, Judy Wilkins!" The voice in the microphone once again brought her back to the moment, and wiping the visible tears from her face she gathered herself together and joined the band on the platform for the second half of the show. For the rest of the performance, the words she sang were like hearing someone else, for her mind had stayed on that song that she had just heard. It floated through her mind and through her memories, and cut her to the heart. Things were going to change in her life.
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