Your family

[Laura]

Hi Robin,

I was very touched to read your thoughts on family. First, I must say that you're blessed to have come from such a close family and had such supportive and terrific parents. It was a tragedy that you lost them both at such a young age - you were just 23 at the time and having your first successes with "Lay a Little Lovin'" and performing in "Hair," and your folks were so young, just a couple of years older than I am now. Thank God you and your brothers and sisters had one another.

I was saddened to read about your brother Ray. Fireman, policemen and rescue workers are often unsung heroes. How is his health these days? I hope he's doing well. Please keep us posted - feel free to have me expand on the family portion of your page if you want. Our loved ones are the most important thing in life.

Take care and God bless,
Laura

[Robin]

Laura

Yes 1970 was a strange year for me to say the least, I was in a Broadway play & had a hit record and during that time I lost the two people that I most loved & respected, my mother & father. They are my prophets love, faith & compassion. In my own way of faith I strive to believe they are waiting for me on the otherside.

My brother Ray today is doing well, of course he has his limitations, it is an amazing recovery , for over a year Ray was encased in a "protective bubble" wrapped from head to toe in bandages in a coma. I will never forget sometimes when we would go & visit him , he would be moving his arms & legs around as if to say "where the f**k am I and what's going on", we all felt helpless, but Ray never lost the "McNamara fight" and proved the doctors wrong who were all wonderful clinicians & helped him battle back. He has a wonderful sense of humor and will sit an talk with you on any subject & loves the Boston Red Sox. I wrote a song called "We Don't Wanna Lose Our Big Brother" while Ray was in the coma that they would play for him everynow & then along with some of his other favorite songs , then one day he woke from the coma & one of the first things he said was "Does anyone know where I can get a black & white frappe"

Love forever
Robin

P.S. Laura thank you so much for all you have done & your faith in my career, down the line we will probably adding a picture collage of the "McNamara Clan"

[ogara989]

Hi Robin,
Until I saw Laura's post on Spectropop I had kind of forgotten the artist that brought us "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me". So my memory got jogged a little bit and I recall meeting you once back in the mid 70's in Worcester, MA at WORC-AM 1310. At one time, it was a very influential station in breaking hit records, even charting the Beatles in 1963 before they broke the next year in the rest of the U.S.
Since I'm relying on memory here, my dates might be a bit off but it seems to me the year might have been 1976 or '77 and you were promoting a new release I think on Rocky Coast Records. You paid a visit to our studio and I recall bringing you into the big record library and pulling out a copy of the LP containing Lay a Little Lovin' On Me. I remember you being surprised that we even had the album. I'm just wondering if you remember visiting Worcester back then? I think there was a Worcester recording group called Fate that was also signed to that label. They were managed by a fellow name Pat George. Any of this ring a bell? If not, it was still a pleasure meeting you back then.
These days that old AM station has gone to talk, but the memories are still being re-lived on the FM dial at my current station, WORC-FM, Oldies 98.9. It's still a thrill to be playing all these great songs after so many years have passed. After 35 years on the air, the music NEVER gets old. Thanks for the memories...

Dave O'Gara
www.oldies989.com

[Robin]

Hi Dave

Thanks so much for your post, I must say I vaguely do remember such a meeting but things were quite hectic at that point traveling around New England visitng local radio & tv stations with Carl Strube who owned Rocky Coast. Also It's good to know that people like yourself are out there still blasting out the "good music" on the radio. Never stop rockin' brother !

Peace
Robin