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2020-21 Alumni Awards
Distinguished Alumnus
Pat Duke (’81) has a voice to remember, from Kool-Aid Man to Swamp People to Halo
by Skip Anderson
Pat Duke’s voice is deep and expressive, with a hint of Southern twang that he can ramp up or shut down completely. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes watching TV over the past three decades has undoubtedly heard his voice.
Duke, a Nashville native who earned his Music Theory-Composition degree from MTSU in 1981, is a voice actor who has appeared in more than 10,000 television commercials.
For five years, Duke’s voice boomed Kool-Aid Man’s distinctive catch phrase, “Ohhhhh, yeahhhh!” He is the memorable low-rumble voice that growls “Coors” while crushed ice slides down the dark-brown bottle. Duke additionally has voiced dozens of characters in cartoons, animated features, and video games.
As the voice of Col. Urban Holland, he guided tens of millions of players through Halo: Reach, the fourth installment of the top-selling video game franchise.
Perhaps most notably, Duke has narrated the History Channel reality series Swamp People since its launch in 2008.
But before Duke became one of America’s best-known voice actors, he was an MTSU student craving all the acting, singing, and music opportunities he could find—excelling in all classes in the music curriculum. In retrospect, this shouldn’t be a surprise. His father, John Duke, is a professor emeritus of Music who taught at MTSU for more than 25 years.
As a student, the younger Duke spent nearly all his time focusing on the arts—from music classes to playing xylophone in the Band of Blue, to portraying lead roles in musicals staged by Dorethe “Dot” Pigg Tucker, and to drumming in the Blues Crusade, MTSU’s big band.
He also co-founded the high-energy musical group Contraband, which helped launch several alumni to careers as top studio musicians on Music Row. During summers, Duke sang in Opryland shows such as I Hear America Singing!, Showboat, Jimmy and the Jets, and The Sh-Booms.
“I was performing seven days a week when I was at MTSU,” Duke said. “Contraband played all over the South on weekends, which made my voice sound tired come Monday morning, so I switched my major from Vocal Performance to Music Theory-Composition.
Duke, recently named MTSU’s Distinguished Alumnus for 2020–21, worked for Pat Patrick Productions at Audio Media in Nashville as a writer, singer, and musician after graduation. The company specialized in music for commercials, and his audition was to write two jingles.
“I learned to work quickly and accurately in the studio, which is critical in the music business,” he said.
Duke then co-founded 615 Productions with fellow MTSU alum Randy Wachtler (’84), which later became one of the biggest music production libraries in the world.
fter moving to Chicago to continue his career, Duke met his late wife, Sally Hewlett, who passed away in 2019 following a short battle with cancer.
“We fell in love at first sight and were never separated after that,” he said. “We went to concerts, stage plays, comedy clubs, and art shows constantly. And we both loved movies.” In Chicago, Duke sang with such mega-stars as Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Josh Groban, and Gladys Knight. Through his ad agency connections, he helped Sony Music launch the Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks). His voice-acting career led him to New York and Los Angeles, and Duke voiced seven Super Bowl commercials—one winning the coveted PromaxBDA award for best voiceover.
After 10 years as narrator for Swamp People, Pat moved with Sally to Murfreesboro to live near his parents, John and Bobbie, who are now in their 80s. Pat’s sister, Renee Duke Miller (’82), also graduated from MTSU.
“I always knew I’d be coming back home,” Duke said. “It’s good to be close to my family again.” Duke continues his work for Swamp People and many other clients from his home studio, and he recently founded an L.A.-based film production company, Duke Films, with his cousin, D.W. Duke.
“We have a big-budget film in the pipeline about the Jewish resistance in Warsaw, Poland, during the Holocaust,” Duke said. “This is another career path for me to go down, and I’m super excited about it.”
To hear some of Duke’s work as a voice actor, visit patduke.com.
LaShan Mathews Dixon
Young Alumni Achievement Award
LaShan Mathews Dixon (’07, ’10, ’11, ’14) uses her many skills developed at MTSU in her personal, professional, and pageant world to help improve the quality of life in the community.
The recipient of this year’s Young Alumni Achievement Award, Dixon works as assistant public health director for the Rutherford County Health Department. She has completed four programs at MTSU: a bachelor’s in Exercise Science, graduate certificates in Health Care Management and in Gerontology, and a master’s in Health and Human Performance.
A Murfreesboro resident, Dixon also is the founder of Walking With a Purpose and co-founder of H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Excel Every Day) with her husband, Lamar Dixon, and daughter, Londyn Dixon. She has been a Rutherford County community leader for the past 10 years, hosting multiple events while contributing toward several grants for women and underserved populations.
Dixon is active in a number of organizations, including as graduate advisor for MTSU’s Eta Psi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which partnered with the University to make and distribute 5,000 COVID-19 care packages for students last fall. In addition, she serves as board examiner for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, Resolutions Committee chair of the Tennessee Public Health Association, board member for the Prevention Coalition for Success Committee and Heart of Tennessee American Red Cross, and member of the Community Wellness Council of Rutherford County.
True Blue Citations of Distinction
Achievement in Education (MTSU faculty)—Odie Blackmon, popular Recording Industry faculty member and Grammy-nominated songwriter from Nashville
Blackmon is regarded as one of Nashville’s most talented and diversified creative forces. On Music Row, he has more than 31 million units in combined sales across multiple genres and the Country Music Association’s 2005 Single of the Year (“I May Hate Myself in the Morning”) to his credit as a songwriter, plus is a successful producer and publisher. His songs have been recorded and performed by such artists as Lee Ann Womack, John Legend, and Martina McBride, with No. 1 hit singles by Gary Allan and George Strait.
At MTSU, Blackmon is an associate professor whose innovative approach is helping to launch a new generation of songwriters and musicians in their own careers. He is coordinator of the Commercial Songwriting concentration and has raised $40,000 in funding for the program’s growth. Blackmon was awarded the Experiential Education Rising Leader Award from the National Society of Experiential Education in 2018, Distinguished Creative Activity Award from the MTSU Foundation in 2017, and Outstanding Faculty Award from MTSU’s Experiential Learning Scholars Program in 2016.
After previously holding a seat on the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association board, Blackmon currently serves on the Library of Congress/ U.S. Copyright Office’s mechanical licensing collective and is a board member for the Association for Popular Music Education.
Service to Community—Ladawna Parham (’98), CEO of Nourish Food Bank in Murfreesboro who has been in nonprofit management for over 15 years
Parham’s current role is far removed from a former journalism career in east and middle Tennessee, where she earned numerous accolades after graduating from MTSU. Parham eventually pursued her passion for supporting nonprofit and community efforts to aid those in crisis through management positions for many years.
At Nourish, Parham has grown the food bank to include multiple sites, offer more than 400,000 meals annually, partner with dozens of organizations to address food insecurity across the region, and create a network of support to ensure the longevity of the agency’s reach. Parham, who also holds a Master of Education in Nonprofit Management from Belmont University, works in real estate with Advantage Realty of Middle Tennessee.
She is a Leadership Rutherford graduate, Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce diplomat, and member of Junior League of Murfreesboro and Rutherford CABLE. Parham also co-founded Spread the Positives Women Nourishing Our Community Series to honor local women making a difference and is on the Rotary Club of Smyrna board of directors.
Achievement in Education (non-MTSU)—Jo Ann Hood (’72), former band director at five schools, including 30 years leading the John Overton High School band
Overton’s football stadium field in Nashville was named Jo Ann Hood Field following her retirement. Hood, an Antioch resident, guided the band to Fiesta Bowl, Tournament of Roses, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades, along with representing the USS Tennessee and state of Tennessee at three commemorations of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, with performances at the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri, and Waikiki Holiday Parade.
Hood retired in 2011 after directing Overton’s band for parts of four decades and serving as band director at Giles County High, Wright and Bellevue junior highs, and Bellevue High School before that. In a distinguished music education career, her honors included induction into the MTSU Band of Blue Club Hall of Fame in 1986, selection as an Outstanding Young Woman in America in 1987, serving on the jury for the John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Shield Award, and participating on various executive and advisory boards.
Since retiring, Hood has supervised music student teachers as an adjunct faculty member at both MTSU and Tennessee State University. She also works with the Metro Nashville Public Schools Side by Side mentoring program and serves extensively as an adjudicator and clinician of marching and concert bands.
