This weekend we celebrated the life of one of our dearest friends Steven Fields. @stevenfields007 was one of a kind. Wickedly funny, fiercely loyal, the king of sarcasm but always with love, wildly creative and talented, he had the best “eye”, was ALWAYS the best dressed and for nearly two decades one of the people I could always count on to be brutally yet hilariously honest with me about my hair, an outfit, a dress, the guy I was dating (ALWAYS the guy I was dating) or just about anything else. Eight out of ten times he was right. Or at least he would tell you - and everyone else - he was. I think he would have loved that for the last five or so days, many of his closest friends have camped out at his house and his salon/dress shop day and night, telling stories, laughing at all of his best one liners, finding stacks of photos he kept, watching old videos, trying on dresses, finding 30 years worth of his sketches of custom gowns he had made for whichever beauty queen he was working with at the time, grieving together, speaking up for him and his legacy, opening and drinking ALL of his most expensive wine, making his signature martini and just celebrating his extravagant, beautiful, hilarious, larger-than-life life. Several of us had the honor of speaking and singing at his celebration of life on Saturday. I haven’t laughed that hard at a service ever. I am 100% certain that he was looking down on all of us, telling his mother Edna and all of the angels in heaven EVERYTHING he was thinking about what we decided to wear that day to honor him and how we styled our hair. LOL. His request for me was that I sing the version of “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” the old hymn, that I sang for talent at Miss Tennessee and subsequently @missamerica in 2004. It was his idea in 2004 that I sing this song at both pageants and he helped create the arrangement. He also created the Minnie Pearl dress I’m wearing in this post. I will treasure it for the rest of my life. Rest easy Stevie. Your band of misfits and beauty queens will carry on your legacy from here. There are SO many things I wish I had said to you. But I also think you knew. Love you forever - Sass