Nevadan writes song about Joplin tornado

Marlene Scotten of Nevada sings her new song, "Scattered Pictures," about the May 22 tornado at Joplin, before a large crowd downtown during Bushwhacker Days' "Local Legends" show last Thursday night. Accompanying her is Matt Harper.

Walking the tornado-blasted streets of Joplin hit Marlene Scotten so hard that it inspired her composition of a song called "Scattered Pictures."

Accompanied by guitarist Matt Harper, her uncle, Scotten performed the song during Thursday night's Local Legends Show on the Square and won enthusiastic applause from an estimated crowd of 1,000 people.

Planning to release a CD within a few weeks, she said she has started more than 100 songs, but "Scattered Pictures" is the first one she has finished.

"Two friends and I drove to Joplin on May 24, two days after it happened, and talked to a family whose house was gone," said Scotten, whose brother Tommy's home and sign business escaped damage on the north side of town.

"They were picking up clothes in a big pile of rubble and said almost everything in their house was not theirs. They were finding baby things and didn't have a baby.

"Volunteers are coming in from all over the country and taking care of people they don't even know. That's what moved me about the whole thing. We gave toothbrushes to families who were very moved to have toothbrushes."

Referring to Boomer's Roadhouse, the nightclub her parents Dirk and Debbi Scotten own, the 1998 Nevada High graduate opened the Facebook page "Boomer's Heart," where Jopliners have posted photos they found and returned them to people who had lost them.

Debbi Scotten said her daughter has made so many contacts that donors have sent vanfuls of supplies and materials from Arkansas, Arizona and Florida to be stored in Hal Fortner's North Osage Boulevard warehouse before distribution in Joplin.

Marlene Scotten and a friend loading a truck with donations going to Joplin tornado victims.

"Marlene has 10 friends who go with her to help unload the truck," her mom said. "She has adopted several families and the warehouse is full.

"I've told her, 'You missed your calling with music.' She is studying for it now at Missouri State in Springfield."

Working as a disc jockey with her Platinum Entertainment Co. at Boomer's Roadhouse, Marlene is a polished alto singer who has written an evocative, professional quality song.

She didn't understand the magnitude of the Joplin disaster on a personal level until getting home to Nixa from her first trip. "The feeling of being in my own home when they had nothing really touched me," she said.

"I put my heart, mind and soul into the song and thought if people don't like it, it's going to break my heart."

This is the chorus:

"Scattered pictures of the way things used to be,

Surrounded by memories got you down on your knees.

And when you look around, disaster is what you see.

But you move on, you push on."