Ronstadt, `Sesame Street' to receive Kennedy Center Honors
WASHINGTON (AP) — Actress Sally Field, singer Linda Ronstadt and the disco-funk band Earth Wind and Fire awaited their turn in the spotlight Sunday night as part of the latest group of recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievements in the arts.
Also in this year's class are conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street.”
Once again, the attendance of President Donald Trump had been an open question. Trump skipped the past two celebrations; the first time, multiple recipients threatened to boycott the event if he attended.
The White House said Friday that neither Trump nor first lady Melania Trump would attend because they planned to host a Christmas party for members of the Secret Service and their families. The Kennedy Center's president, Deborah Rutter, said in an interview earlier this year that “they are always invited.”
Field, 72, was a television star at age 19 and went on to forge a distinguished career that included two Academy Awards and three Emmys. She starred last year in a Netflix miniseries called “Maniac.”
“Sesame Street” debuted in 1969 and remains a force in children’s educational television. The show now airs new episodes on HBO, and they are rebroadcast months later on the show’s original home, PBS. The co-founders of “Sesame Street,” Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the award on behalf of the show.
Ronstadt was one of the faces of American music in the 1970s and 1980s, landing on the cover of Time magazine in 1977. In 2011, she announced her retirement from singing, citing the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Tilson Thomas, who has served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for the past 24 years, has become particularly...