15 Years of Wine Around the Square
Celebrating the Power of Pink Honor Roll
Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation
Story by Lee Rennick
Susan G. Komen Golf Tournament in Murfreesboro, Rally for the Cure, Friends for Life, Power of Pink and Wine Around the Square, these were all names of events that led up to the creation of the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation’s Wine Around the Square (WATS) in September 2012. Planners eventually decided that Power of Pink would be the umbrella allowing for multiple events under its banner, including a golf tournament, a tennis tournament, the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation Ambassador’s luncheon and this year’s WATS, which will take place on Murfreesboro’s historic downtown on October 24, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
For 20 years, the Power of Pink branding has recognized a local patient diagnosed with breast cancer who was willing to tell her story and who would champion public awareness of the importance of early detection. This annual honoree became the “face of breast cancer” during WATS for their particular year. The much-anticipated downtown event features a “progressive” wine tasting as ticket holders move from venue to venue on the beautiful historic Square. Funds raised are used for mammograms, breast cancer care and education for Rutherford County women who may be uninsured, underinsured or indigent.
About three years ago, those eligible to be named as honorees expanded to include local physicians and community advocates caring for breast cancer patients. These compassionate caregivers promote early detection and provide resources necessary to aid those fighting this terrible disease.
For the 15th anniversary, Wine Around the Square will honor the remarkable women and men whose stories of courage, strength and resilience have inspired our community. This year, as we celebrate our 15th anniversary, we’re bringing the journey full circle.
Join us in celebrating those who have shaped the Wine Around the Square story. Their stories remind us why we gather, why we give and why the Power of Pink fund matters. For more than a decade, the fund has helped provide critical breast health services to uninsured and underinsured women in our community – from mammograms and screenings to diagnostics, transportation and patient support.
Talk to the 2025 honoree, Patty Marschel, about how WATS got started and she’ll tell you that it was people in the community catching onto the idea of helping women with breast cancer, not anything she did. Even if it was Patty’s effervescence and her college roommate Susan Loyd’s diagnosis of cancer that got the ball rolling, this chain of events led to Patty’s agreeing to co-chair the Susan G. Komen Golf Tournament in Murfreesboro in 2006.
The golf tournament hadn’t been much of a success, but Patty decided to make it the premier breast cancer fundraiser in the county. Go-getter that she is, Patty rallied her friends bringing in the women’s tennis group, as well as more women golfers to the event at Stones River Country Club.
The first two honorees were Martha Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell, the golf honoree, and Arthanise Wright, the tennis honoree. Libby was a teacher before retiring to raise her children and oversee her beloved River Oaks Farm. Libby was honored for bringing together more women golfers to support that first golf tournament.
A native of Cannon County, Arthanise Gilliam Wright was a nurse and community volunteer. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), she was actively involved with local health advocacy, including the Susan G. Komen Nashville Affiliate and Relay for Life. Arthanise was diagnosed with breast cancer at 32, three days after her sister, Libby. Her mother was also a two-time breast cancer survivor. Both sisters are now deceased, with Arthanise, sadly, passing at the age of 40.
On the day of that first golfing and fundraising event, there were crystal chandeliers draped in pink tissue paper and feather boas, golf carts bedecked in pink décor and both the golf course and the tennis courts filled with women wearing a rainbow of pink shades rallying together for their sisters dealing with breast cancer. The event raised $14,000.
The 2007 honoree, Evelyn Hardison, was born in Giles County, grew up in Donelson and lived in Murfreesboro with her husband of 59 years, Dr. Fenton Payne Hardison, a local oral surgeon. As a former teacher, she appreciated the importance of a strong education and served for many years on the Murfreesboro City Schools Board. She was a longtime member of the Charity Circle of Murfreesboro, the MTSU’s Blue Raider Fan Club and the Rutherford County medical community. Evelyn passed away in 2022.
A “Friends for Life” Wine and Cheese party held at the home of Amy Watts was added to the fundraising initiative the second year, after Patty’s friends Rita Ash and Leslie Akins were added to the planning team. That year they raised more than $41,000.
To reach additional people in 2008, “The Power of Pink” grew once again to include the golf and tennis tournaments, as well as a party at the home of Larry and Susan Quesenberry. $50,000 dollars was raised.
Ann Nora Parsons became the 2008 honoree. Currently 102 years old, Ann Nora discovered later in life that she had a very treatable form of breast cancer. Tennessee Oncology successfully cared for her thanks to early detection. Married to Myers Browning Parsons, Sr. for 73 years, he served on the Rutherford County Hospital Board of Directors and afterwards served on the original Board of Directors of The Christy-Houston Foundation.
Despite a downturn in the national economy in 2009, the event was able to raise $30,000. Kathy and Wayne Nobles opened their beautiful home for the event, and Martha “Marty” Archer LaRoche Murphy was the honoree.
Born in Ripley, Tennessee, Marty met her first husband, Lt. Richard LaRoche, during the summer of 1943, after her first year at the University of Tennessee. They settled in Murfreesboro in 1950 where Richard practiced law. She was a founding member of the Murfreesboro League of Women Voters and worked in many local and mid-state campaigns. Marty was mother to local community members Ted LaRoche, Dr. Elizabeth LaRoche and Lina Warden. The community mourned her passing in 2014.
Angie Boyd-Chambers came to the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation in 2010 to gauge their interest in producing the ever-popular events. The fundraising events had grown too large for the three full-time working women who had been the main organizers – Patty, Rita Ash and Leslie Akins. This meant adding Anne Davis, who was a member of the Foundation team at that time, in addition to Jeana Campbell and Lindsey Fournier.
Jan Mioton hosted the 2010 Wine and Cheese party at her home, and the honoree was Margie Spangler. Margie has many ties to the Murfreesboro and the medical community being married to Dr. Pat Spangler.
Men were invited for the first time in 2011. This increased the size of the event, as did the focus on raising enough funds to purchase and operate a mobile mammogram coach with the goal of extending the reach of Power of Pink services.
“We outgrew every big house in town! The last year we had the wine and cheese party at Rick and Mitzi Michaelson’s house,” added Patty. “It was bumper to bumper.”
Wordna Black was the 2011 honoree. A long-time teacher in Rutherford County, Wordna shared her message that life was good after cancer, especially after surviving it twice. She passed away in 2017.
In 2011, Rita Ash returned from a visit to Seaside, Florida, where she attended the Seeing Red Wine Festival. She brought the idea of creating a similar event for Murfreesboro to the Foundation team. Anne, Jeana and Lindsey were all in, as were Rita’s co-chairs Patty and Leslie. Anne asked then hospital CEO, Gordon Ferugson, if the Foundation could hire the Seeing Red Wine Festival organizer to oversee the first event. Gordon agreed, and it set the event ahead as many trial and error scenarios were avoided that first year.
Betty Hord, a retired schoolteacher, community leader and breast cancer survivor, was named the inaugural honoree for the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation Wine Around the Square event on September 21, 2012. The inaugural evening kicked off with an art auction at Pinnacle Investment Partners before guests moved to the Square for the wine tasing event. With Anne Davis serving as the Foundation Director, $50,000 was raised that year.
The previous year, Betty’s life had changed during her routine annual baseline mammogram when a mass was detected. “I cannot say enough good things about the wonderful people at Middle Tennessee Medical Center (MTMC, now Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford),” Betty said in a press release from that year. “Everyone, from my surgeon to the nurses to the techs, everyone I encountered was so sincere and caring. It was a positive experience. And having the Nurse Navigator from MTMC guide me through the post-op period and make herself available to me to answer my myriads of questions was invaluable. It was another wonderful, positive service offered by MTMC.”
Dr. Dorothy Murphy, an internal medicine physician at the Alvin C. York Veterans Administration Medical Center, was the 2013 honoree. She had a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, making her a true survivor.
With the help of her husband, Dr. Randall Rickard, 2014 honoree Dr. Sue Andrews was able to keep up her full medical practice while going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments to cure her breast cancer. She also served 16 years on the Murfreesboro City Schools Board.
One of the owners of Bell’s Jewelers, Lisa Halliburton was unsure about being the 2015 honoree because she didn’t want the event to be about her. Then, she realized that it was not about her, but being the honoree was about educating the public, making people aware of early testing, learning the truth of their diagnosis and getting treatment. So, she readily agreed!
The date that 2016 honoree Dotty Adams found out she had breast cancer is emblazoned in her memory: February 10, 2014. Dotty went to Dr. Elizabeth LaRoche for her annual mammogram. They found a spot, and Dr. LaRoche asked her to repeat the mammogram three days later. That second screening confirmed the spot, yet she was never worried. She believed that “God is going to take care of this.”
Marimae Miller White was selected as the 2017 Wine Around the Square Honoree because of her strength, courage, trust in local physicians and her willingness to advocate for breast health. In 2015, Dr. LaRoche sent Marimae for a 3D mammogram when both patient and physician had concerns about a lump in her right breast. Both Marimae and Dr. LaRoche were surprised to learn that, while the right breast was free of cancer, a worrisome shadow appeared on the 3D mammogram of her left breast.
A longtime resident of Murfreesboro, 2018 honoree Kay Boyd, has a long history of working in the field of medicine. Although starting her career as a teacher, she later decided that her passion was in patient care. In 1982, after graduating from MTSU’s nursing program, Kay began her work at MTMC as a Registered Nurse. She served as a nurse in surgery, as well as the materials manager for the surgical department until 2007. She retired in 2017 from being a MTSU health services nurse.
Gloria Bonner was the honoree in 2019. She has been a community builder and mover and shaker in Murfreesboro for more than 40 years serving as a teacher, researcher and as the first African American female Dean at MTSU. She retired as Assistant to the President in the Office of University Community Relations and as a member of the President’s Cabinet. A two-time breast cancer survivor, her second diagnosis came five months after announcing her retirement. At Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital, she never questioned the professional decisions and recommendations of her amazing team of healthcare providers who supported her treatment and recovery.
There were no honorees in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVD-19 pandemic. The event was cancelled.
Drs. Max and Mary Moss were named as the 2022 honorees. When Dr. Mary Moss first began her career as an OB-GYN physician in 1991, a breast cancer diagnosis could be a death sentence. There were very little treatment options other than radical surgery and extremely harsh chemotherapies. Medicine has come a long way since that time. She and her husband, Dr. Max Moss, feel honored to be able to employ the latest therapies and technologies to help their patients recover from a breast cancer diagnosis.
Dr. Max Moss came to the study of diagnostic radiology because of the profound effects it has on so many lives. “Every day a radiologist may interpret over 100 diagnostic and screening studies,” said Dr. Moss, “each of which has the potential to make a profound difference in a patient’s life. I was also drawn to the technology and innovation used in the field of radiology, and the ability to work with many different medical specialties.”
When 2023 honoree Gay Ensey received the diagnosis of breast cancer, the disease was far from new to her. Both her mother and younger sister had previously been diagnosed with the disease, and she helped them through their journey. She had been a nurse at Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford for 47 years at the time she was honored. Working as the Program Coordinator for Orthopedics and Neurosurgery, her office is on the floor with oncology, so she sees cancer patients every day.
“I have had a lot of first-hand experience with cancer,” said Gay, “so it wasn’t as devastating to me. It wasn’t that my world turned upside down. I’m also a very realistic, very calm person, so I was like, hey we have a new adventure in life. We’re going to go for it and figure this out.”
Dr. Nicholas and his wife, Adrienne Tarola, the 2024 honorees, arrived in Murfreesboro in 2011. He came to take a position at what was then MTMC, now Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford. Both he and Adrienne jumped into involvement in the Murfreesboro community with both feet. Dr. Tarola is a specialist in reconstruction surgery for breast cancer survivors.
Adrienne began volunteering for Wine Around the Square by almost as soon as the family got settled in town. Glenda Meredith, then an LPN at the hospital, was the first to reach out to Adrienne about the Power of Pink. Then, her background in event planning and marketing brought Adrienne to the attention of Rita Ash and Patty Marschel. She has been part of the “Pink Team” ever since, as well as coordinating the very successful Ballroom BRA for several years as another breast cancer fundraiser.
What began as a grass roots event led by a team of volunteers and their loyal supporters has grown into one of Rutherford County’s most impactful breast cancer initiatives. Over the last 20 years, the Power of Pink has raised $3,360,000, remaining committed to ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent women from receiving potentially life-saving cancer screenings and support services.
Tickets for this year’s main event are $100 per person, and VIP tickets are $300 per person. VIPs are invited to the pre-party that will take place at Whiskey Dix. The VIP Party will take place from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. The Main Event will begin at 6:00 p.m. and end at 9:00 p.m. For more information and tickets go to the Wine Around the Square sponsorship page.