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Former duck powers to success By Philip Jankowski Hood-Jack oversees power plants, releases first album Former Taylor resident Lorraine Hood-Jack may keep herself busy overseeing the installation of gigantic turbines for power plants and creating a music album, but she still has time for Taylor. No matter where she goes or who she meets, she makes sure to let them know that she is from Taylor. That’s T-A-Y-L-O-R not T-Y-L-E-R. “Whether in Spain or Pflugerville, you’ll always hear me correct the person who asks “Tyler,” and I have to give them the spelling, location in proximity to Austin and go from there,” Hood-Jack said. “I’m proud of where I come from and one is hard-pressed to accept his total being if he or she isn’t.” Hood-Jack, 53, is the regional manager for a wholly owned General Electric Company subsidiary that creates massive turbines for power plants, refineries and ships. She heads up every phase of construction and maintenance for western states. She currently lives in Portland, Ore., though she has done projects all over the west coast and outside the country. Though she is busy, Hood-Jack has also found a way to create a gospel album, her first professional recording, which will be released July 1. The album is called “Free,” which is the name of song she wrote inspired by a sudden, beautiful clearing of an otherwise dreary day she witnessed while driving from Washington to Oregon. “The sun came out and with this big rainbow, and I just started writing. By the time I got to where I was going I had written four stanzas,” she said. Hood-Jack said it was a “wow” moment where the clarity and beauty of the world brought her faith in God to the forefront. “He sends the sunshine from above with all his love and it’s free,” is one lyric from the song. Hood-Jack is quick to point out her luck in life. She landed her current position after being noticed for her civil rights volunteerism, which then landed her a job as a senior investigator for Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industry. That job dealt mainly with investigating claims of on-the-job discrimination. Her experience in those investigations helped land her current position, since she sometimes has to investigate employee cases where disciplinary action may be necessary. Once she conducted interviews for 36 hours straight while investigating an incident in Alaska. She is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In both cases, she never sought out the job. Instead, people she met through her professional contacts notified her of available positions. “It’s all about timing I guess,” she said. Getting into the recording business went sort of the same way, Hood-Jack said. She has been singing her whole life, whether in her church choir or in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 at a NBA basketball game. After singing at a memorial service, she was asked if she would be interested in recording something. Next thing she new, Hood-Jack was creating an album of traditional gospel tunes, including old classics and new material of her own. “I have a whole new respect for people who are in that profession,” she said. “There’s a ton of work. There’s a huge learning curve from the terminology to the technology. There were days when I thought, ‘There’s no way I could do this, there’s too much stuff’.” Hood-Jack already has plans for her next album, which will be all original material. She has already written eight songs.
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