Pat Guard

My professional experience takes many directions as you can witness by my current occupations.... the summary of which is "I love what I do - all of it!" I began my career in photography with a publishing company in Huntsville, AL. By the time, I was 18, I had taken over the entire graphics department. After college graduation, my husband and long-time singing partner, Ray, and I began our singing career and life on the road. We performed at swanky resorts all over the U.S. I kept my hand heavily in photography as I produced brochures for the resorts that employed us and album covers for the several record companies in the Nashville area. Ray and I opened the Sheraton Gatlinburg where we performed in the lounge there for over 2 years and opened for Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, Floyd Cramer and Ronnie Milsap. We recorded our first album at Bradley's Barn in Mt Joliet, TN. We eventually landed at the glorious Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys. We performed there nightly for several years and spent our days photographing for corporations like Coca Cola of Miami & Key West and Jack Nicholas' Golden Bear Corp. While there, we were discovered by Frank Borman of Eastern Airlines who featured us in a program with Jimmy Buffett and David Allen Coe called, "Music from the Florida Keys". After 3 years in the Keys, we were appoached by a CEO with Club Corporation of America. After much consideration, we left the Keys and spent 8 months at Inverrary Country Club in Fort Lauderdale and eventually 17 wonderful years performing at Kingwood Country Club in TX. Two years after our arrival in Kingwood, we were blessed to adopt two wonderful children. During our 17 years with CCA, we were also in charge of photographing 74 clubs in KS, OK, TX and Mexico for CCA Central. In 1989, we opened The Veranda and the new location for Pat & Ray's Studio. In addition to our music and photography, we also publish The Forest Image, a publication that is mailed to 40,000 homes.