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You may recognize Debe Fennell from the Senior Care Plus advertising campaign that premiered last October. Debe is a Reno resident who enjoys staying busy with her career, gardening, music and more. We’re excited to introduce her as our featured Sterling Silver Club member for this fall. From Coast to Coast Debe was born in 1949 in the historical city of Elmira, New York. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) also lived in Elmira, which is where he got married, had children and wrote a few of his famous novels, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In fact, Mark Twain was a friend of Debe’s great-grandfather, who migrated from Europe to build what used to be called The Elmira Hotel. Debe and her family moved from Elmira to Kentucky in 1950, where they lived until Debe was 14. Debe grew up with three sisters and two brothers. Her family moved to Arkansas in 1964 and lived there until 1970. Debe graduated from Southside High School in 1964 and was part of the school’s first graduating class. After high school, Debe traveled to London with a group of missionaries to sing at the Lambeth Conference. When she returned, she went to the University of Arkansas - Little Rock for a couple of years before moving to Reno, Nevada in 1970.  Debe spent the next 15 years in Reno, enjoying life as a self-proclaimed ski bum and working at various jobs. Her first job in Reno was at the YMCA of the Sierra on Foster Drive, before Debe completed dealer school through Harrah’s Casino and became a high-limit blackjack dealer. In 1985, Debe moved from Reno to Nashville, where she began an exciting career in the music industry.   Making History in Music City Debe’s first job in Nashville was working as a journalist for a music publication. Her other business ventures included being a talent coordinator for two nationally syndicated radio shows, and a national records promotion executive for Sony/BMG, Curb Records, Magnatone Records and Giant Records. She was one of very few female Vice Presidents in the music industry in Nashville at the time, and worked for many big names in country music, including Tim McGraw and Randy Travis.

Read More About Meet Sterling Silver Club Member Debe Fennell

This summer, we’re excited to introduce our featured Sterling Silver Club member, Hanley Wong. You may recognize him from the newest Senior Care Plus television commercial that has been airing locally since last October. Hanley happens to be a former employee of Renown Health and worked in the information technology (IT) department for 13 years. Today, he’s enjoying his retirement here in northern Nevada, with the occasional traveling to visit his family.    Looking Back  Hanley was born in San Francisco in 1944. He was in the U.S Army Reserve from 1966-1972, having traveled to various places including North Carolina, Salt Lake City, Long Beach, Hong Kong and Taiwan. While he was in the U.S. Army Reserve, he also attended college part-time and graduated from San Francisco State University in 1970 with a degree in business administration, emphasis in accounting. Hanley went into the IT field after he gained computer experience through his accounting background. “I started learning how to program with computers, then became a systems engineer where I did troubleshooting, maintenance and more,” said Hanley. “I’ve always enjoyed the challenging work in the IT field, and I got to meet all kinds of people.”    Hanley started his first IT job at a small insurance company in San Francisco. He went on to work for the GAP headquarters and met his late wife there, who also worked for the company. They were married for 40 years and had two sons together. The family moved to Reno 21 years ago when Hanley was recruited by Washoe Medical Center, before it became Renown Regional Medical Center. “My favorite part about working at Renown was the camaraderie in the IT department; it was like a big family,” said Hanley. “I enjoyed making employees happy by solving their computer problems.” In 2005, Hanley was part of the team that helped install Epic, Renown’s electronic medical record system. Through that project, he traveled to a few different conferences and trainings with his team.

Read More About Get to Know Sterling Silver Club Member Hanley Wong