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The T.J. Martell Foundation will bestow the first Sunshine Award to The Palm Restaurant’s Rae Krenn during the Nashville Comedy Festival this April. Krenn is known throughout Nashville for her unwavering hospitality, warm demeanor and oftentimes risqué banter. Some refer to Krenn as the “Unofficial Mayor of Nashville” due to the five-foot Aussie knowing everyone in town.
Krenn has been the hostess at The Palm, one of Nashville’s most prominent restaurants, for more than 20 years. She has met and befriended everyone from country music greats Charlie Daniels and Blake Shelton to former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George.
“My mom was from Lismore, Australia, and she loved Rae,” says T.J. Martell Southern Region Vice President Mike Smardak. “It just makes me happy to see her smiling face and be around her. She’s a treasure.”
Krenn will receive her award on Monday, April 13 at the Nashville Comedy Festival’s No Laughing Matter event to be held at Liberty Hall at the Factory at Franklin. Slated to perform at the event (officially titled No Laughing Matter — A Night of Comedy for a Cure to Benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation: Music’s Promise for Curing Cancer) are comedians Karen Mills, Dusty Slay, Pat McGann, Aaron Weber, Steven Bargatze and Killer Beaz. Bone Hampton is set to host.
“It’s going to be lovely, darling,” dotes Krenn on her upcoming honor.
Born in Sydney, Australia in 1951, Krenn journeyed to the United States in the ’80s when her eldest daughter, Sherrié Austin, landed a role in the hit American TV show “The Facts of Life.” The whole family then moved continents, landing in Los Angeles and eventually migrating to Nashville, Tennessee after the 1994 earthquakes in California. Recently celebrating her 20th anniversary at The Palm, this beloved “hostess with the mostess” is a friend to all, from locals to tourists, from the janitor, to the governor.
