01/30/2000
MIKE BOLTON
News staff writer

“A lot of people don’t understand the importance of the hunter and his role in conservation. I also have strong feeling about gun ownership. It’s a thing called freedom.” Irlene Mandrell

BENTON – For two years during the early 1980s, Irlene Mandrell was content being one of the girls. Along with sisters Barbara and Louise, they came into American living rooms with a hit variety show that endeared them to millions.

Eighteen years later, Mandrell is happy out of show business and giddy over being one of the boys.

Whether she’s strapping on the helmet to slam fenders in her race car or putting on the camouflage to deal misery to the deer population, the guys have found out she’s no publicity stunt.
That was no more evident than here last year when the first female participant in the Buckmasters Classic took the big buck and became the first female winner.

“I took that deer on the last few minutes of the last day,” she said with a laugh. “It tickled me to death. I’m about as competitive as you can get.”

Mandrell’s slide from show business was self-inflicted, she realizes now. In 1980 and 1981, she played the role of a dingy blond on Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters. When doctors advised sister Barbara to quit her singing because of health reasons, she slid over to Hee-Haw to play the same role for another eight years.

“If I wasn’t type-cast after two years on the first show, I surely was after Hee-Haw,” she said, laughing. “Most people wouldn’t tell me that to my face, but people that tried to get me in the movies told me nicely that it was a problem.

“I don’t really miss the show businesses because I’m just as happy as I can be doing what I’m doing. If a role in a western came by, though, I might be interested. I love to ride horses and shoot guns.”

Accomplished shooter

Mandrell got her start shooting guns in the backyard with her father as a youngster. She’s never stopped doing it. She’s an accomplished skeet shooter and even holds her own Irlene Mandrell Celebrity Skeet Shoot for charity each year. She took the top prize in sister Louise’s celebrity shoot last year.

She’s an excellent wing shot and an avid dove hunter and is accomplished with a handgun.

Louise is no different. She usually wipes out all challengers with a shotgun on the skeet course and rules her own celebrity skeet shoot which is held in Nashville each year.

Irlene Mandrell began deer hunting only in recent years, but has become proficient in that too.

“You can go ahead and write that I’m going to win this thing (the Buckmasters) again because I am,” she said matter-of-factly. “I know where a 10-point is this time and it’s big enough to win it again.”

Mandrell surprises those who meet her by her size and age. She’s tiny and 40-something, but has the look of a vivacious teenager. Don’t let the cuteness fool you, however. When she comes to play, she comes to play hard.

Behind the wheel

She races a Legends race car at Nashville Speedway and Twin Fountain Speedway. She has won several celebrity events in the car and now has moved up to the semi-pro division. The car is sponsored by Realtree camouflage for whom she is the national spokeswoman. She travels the country making appearances for the Columbus, Ga.-based outfit.

“I love doing the meet-and greet thing,” she said. “I get to travel across the country and go on a lot of hunts. I can’t imagine anything that could make me happier.”

Mandrell said many people are surprised by her stand on guns and hunting, but she receives little flak.

“I’ll sit down with them and show them the big picture,” she said. “A lot of people don’t understand the importance of the hunter and his role in conservation. I also have strong feeling about gun ownership. It’s a thing called freedom.”

Mandrell has a 14-year-old son, a 12-year-old daughter and a 4-yearold daughter. The two older children have already taken deer and birds.

“I make sure that they understand the whole picture, too,” she said. “I clean my own deer, so they clean their own birds. Then we take them home and cook them.”

? 2000 The Birmingham News. Used with permission.