by 
Virginia Cannon
Virginia Cannon is a former resident of San Manuel living there from 1971 – 1976. She has returned to the area after a successful career in the arts and entertainment industry.
Virginia Nameth, as she was known when living in San Manuel, is the daughter of Dorothy and Stephen Nameth and the sister to Sioux, Laura and Joe. Her dad was the Assistant Mill Superintendent at Magma. Joe and Laura Nameth graduated from San Manuel High School in 1973. Virginia attended Avenue B Elementary School and was in the first 7th grade class at Gardner Middle School. She still has friends in the area.
Virginia and her parents moved to Tennessee where she graduated from high school. She then went to Atlanta, Georgia where she attended modeling school and later attended Georgia State University and Emory University majoring in Art History. Following school at the age of 25, she started her own art consulting company, where she specialized in hotel art collections. She enjoyed a long career doing art collections for Hyatt, Marriott, Doubletree, Westin, Loews and more. She then changed her focus to residential art collections in Nashville, Tennessee. She put together art collections for individuals including celebrities Wynona Judd, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson and others.
Virginia had moved to Nashville with her daughter Cheyenne in the year 2000. In 2001, following the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, art collections became non-existent. She decided to switch careers and went to work in the entertainment industry. She first went to work for MHitchcock Management, who managed the careers of musical artists Emmylou Harris, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Suzy Boggus, Danny Flowers and Monte Montgomery. She also worked each year for nine years in a row at the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. Bonnarroo is the largest music festival in the United States. The four day festival attracts 100,000 campers each year. She worked in the artist catering tent and was in contact with every musician/artist that played at the festival.
She later was offered the position of Director of Artist Relations for Voyage-Air Guitar. She was responsible for gathering artist endorsements for the guitar. In doing her work, she met many guitar players including some from Paul McCartney’s band, Marc Antony, Jimmy Buffet, Bob Seger, Hall and Oates and many more. She is proud of orchestrating a deal with legendary guitar player from the band Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora. She had gone over to Sambora’s house in Los Angeles to show him the guitar which is a full sized acoustic car or electric guitar that folds at the neck for travel and can fit into a backpack. Richie got the idea to buy one hundred guitars and give them away to active military members. He gave them away at Camp Pendleton and it put the company on the news with every major network.
Virginia was also responsible for product placement in TV/Movies. She was able to get the guitar on the television shows GLEE, Californication, and Homeland. The Voyage-Air Guitar was on Shark Tank four times and a deal was struck with Kevin O’Leary and Fender Guitars. After six years with Voyage-Air Guitar, the company laid off 90% of their staff. Virginia then moved on.
Her connections in the world of TV and movies landed her a partnership with veteran talent manager, Karen Embry. Karen was based in Los Angeles and Virginia was in Nashville but she helped her manage a roster of actors that included Tilky Jones. Tilky was cast in “Pretty Little Liars and Single Ladies.” Her first placement landed him on five episodes of the TV show Nashville.
For the last eight years, Virginia hosted a popular songwriting show titled Virginia Cannon Presents. In the weekly show, she hosted a group of songwriters that played in traditional rounds of three, sharing songs that they wrote.
Virginia was also doing consulting with kids and their families for music and acting. She worked with 16-year-old Shania Paige and her parents, leading to a major record deal last year with Heart Songs Corporation. She worked with many songwriters and performers teaching songwriting and live performance coaching.
Virginia moved to Oro Valley last year to help take care of her 93-year-old father who was living in San Manuel. She and her sister Laura were able to enjoy “a wonderful eight months celebrating Father’s Day and his 94th birthday” before he passed away in January.
She currently has a part time job at Allegro School of Music in Tucson doing media coordination, consulting and live performance coaching. Her services are offered to the public. These services include songwriting assistance & mentoring, music business education which includes music publishing, song pitching, performance rights and more. For more information visit www.allegroschoolofmusic.net.
She has also brought her show “Virginia Cannon Presents” to Tucson at the Monterrey Court Studio Galleries, 505 W. Miracle Mile. She is lining up live musical entertainment every third Thursday of the month. Her next shows are on June 15 and July 20. She is looking for local talent to perform. You must be able to perform at least four original songs and accompany themselves or have an accompanist. If you are a singer or songwriter and would like to perform live at Monterrey Court, you can contact Virginia at virginiacannon14@gmail.com.
Virginia has done well for herself in the music and entertainment industry. She has brought her knowledge and talent back to Arizona. She would like to hear from old friends. Welcome back, Virginia, and good luck in your endeavors!
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
by by