Biography
Stacy Harris, an actress, researcher, and scriptwriter originally from Minnesota, never imagined she would be mistaken for the late Canadian character actor who shared her name. This confusion arose not only because they share identical first and last names in the same profession but also due to the way search engine data merges identities in the Internet era.
This mix-up, though brief, was uniquely hers. It occurred in March 1973 when she was a student at the University of Maryland, College Park. Taking a lunch break alone in her dorm room, with her roommate away, Stacy unpacked her meal and turned on her transistor radio to listen to one of her favorite programs.
Anyone familiar with ABC Radio’s Paul Harvey News and Comment knows that Harvey rarely began his blend of news and commentary with the day’s most important story. On this occasion, his distinctive voice—one that Stacy, a Radio and TV major, had always imagined as “the voice of God”—nearly caused her to lose her appetite when she heard the startling opening: “Stacy Harris is dead!”
Moments later, it became clear he was referring to the other Stacy Harris.
The Stacy Harris with the broadcast degree graduated from St. Louis Park High School, where she and her classmate Thomas Friedman, now a New York Times columnist, contributed to the school newspaper. Other notable alumni from St. Louis Park High include filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen.
The Coen brothers paid tribute to their drama teacher, Pete Peterson, in their 1987 film Raising Arizona. Similarly, Stacy credits Peterson for her first acting role, directing her as Rebecca Nurse in the high school’s production of The Crucible.
Stacy, once a member of Park High’s American History Singers, later became a songwriter. She took a songwriting course at Middle Tennessee State University taught by one of her mentors, Tom T. Hall, after graduating from the University of Maryland. Her higher education began early, earning college credits during high school through summer courses at the College of Emporia in Kansas. Combined with additional summer classes at Vanderbilt University, Stacy completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in three years.
She often jokes about leaving the Washington, D.C. area—where she studied political communications and rhetorical theory. Her professor, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, was so impressed she encouraged Stacy to apply for a White House internship and offered to provide a reference. As Stacy explains her decision to move to Nashville, where she has lived for over fifty years covering country music as an author and journalist, alongside acting and production work: “There’s enough politics in the music business.”
