Fit for a Queen – Kay Denison

as recounted by Ken Denison, Kay’s son…“Mom had a nice steady gig playing in the Canadian Grill at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa during the mid 60’s. She played there on the weekends and would often get called in during the week for special events . One  evening in centennial year, she was asked to come in and play dinner music for some government function. Didn’t really matter what it was, when Mom got there she’d give the crowd a ‘read’ and she’d know exactly how to please them. Arriving, she noticed an honour band, so she knew it was something special, but just settled in doing what she does best and got the crowd dancing and mingling. Suddenly she was asked to stop, the honour band played the Royal Salute…. and in walked the Queen ! The honour band finished their thing and it was expected of Mom to continue on with ‘music fit for a queen’ .  As the Queen sat and smiled royally at all her guests in turn, she suddenly turned and beamed at Mom as she started to play. Mom had read somewhere that Her favourite song was ‘People will say we’re in Love’ . It made the Queens night.”