Nationally-renowned humorist Jeanne Swanner Robertson, an Elon University trustee, raised more than $23,000 in a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina on Sept. 29. Details...
Tickets for the event at Burlington’s Williams High School were $25 each with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the American Red Cross to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. She told the audience it’s “fun to give and to feel good inside,” delivering a classic routine about her life in Alamance County. Among the targets of her humor were her husband Jerry (Left Brain) Robertson, and her good friend Norma Rose White, wife of Elon athletics director Alan White.
The event was sponsored by the Burlington Times-News as part of Alamance County’s “Operation Gulfport,” a project to aid storm victims in the Gulfport, Miss., area.
Robertson delivered the address at Elon’s Commencement exercises in May. She has been recognized by her peers with every top honor and designation in her profession including the Certified Speaking Professional designation by the National Speakers Association (NSA) in 1980 and induction into the Speaker Hall of Fame in 1981. She became the first woman to receive the Cavett Award, the NSA’s highest honor, in 1989.