NASHVILLE (CelebrityAccess) — The T.J. Martell Foundation has presented its first-ever Sunshine Award to The Palm Restaurant hostess and unofficial mayor of Nashville, Rae Krenn.
Krenn was presented with the honor at The Palm by T.J. Martell Foundation board member Ben Jumper. Her daughter Sherrié Austin, husband Alf Krenn, and son-in-law Will Rambeaux were also present to help her celebrate the honor.
Due to social distancing, more well-wishers participated in the presentation remotely via Zoom, including former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, Butch Spyridon, Rod Essig, George Armistead, Jamie Isabel, Marty Dickens and her son Guy Krenn.
“From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank the T.J. Martell Foundation and the man who made all of this happen, my dear friend Mike Smardak,” says Krenn. “I’m deeply honored, humbled and forever grateful to receive an award for doing what I love and loving what I do.”
The Sunshine Award is intended to recognize a member of the community who “positively makes each day a better day, just by being themselves.”
According to the T.J. Martell Foundation, Krenn has gained a reputation throughout Nashville for her unwavering hospitality, warm demeanor and oftentimes risqué banter.
Krenn has been the hostess at The Palm, one of Nashville’s best-known steakhouses for more than 20 years, and has made friends with everyone from Charlie Daniels and Blake Shelton to former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George.
A native of Australia, Krenn relocated to Los Angeles when her daughters Sherrié Austin, landed a role in the hit American TV show “The Facts of Life. After the 1994 earthquake, she moved from Los Angeles to Nashville.
“There is nobody more deserving in this town to receive the Sunshine Award than Rae Krenn, who always puts a smile on your face,” notes Mike Smardak, who serves on the T.J. Martell Foundation’s Southern Region Board of Governors.
