When Miranda Lambert, a native of Lindale, Texas, settled in the small Oklahoma town of Tishomingo with her fellow country star husband and Oklahoman Blake Shelton, the town had suffered the economic downturn that many small towns across America have experienced. Main Street was lined with empty storefronts.
Things began to change in 2012 when Lambert opened a boutique called the Pink Pistol in one of those empty storefronts. The store turned out to be one wail of a success. Other boutiques and blingy-bling stores followed the Pink Pistol's lead.
This fall, the singer-songwriter opened Ladysmith, a bread and breakfast in a restored commercial building. Today, there only two Main Street storefronts still empty.
Sophia Dembling, a special contributor to the Dallas Morning News, traveled to Tishomingo and eloquently captured the Lambert-fueled transformation of the town's downtown in a Nov. 23 travel feature in the newspaper. Dembling is author of "100 Places in the USA Every Woman Must Go."
In describing Lambert's boutique, Dembling noted, "The Pink Pistol is an explosion of pink and sparkly and kitschy and quirky and fun. Along with women's clothing, purses and jewelry, there's a huge selection of souvenirs with the Pink Pistol logo and all manner of this and that: guitar-shaped spatulas; novelty Band-Aids; an "AK Ice Tray" for bullet-shaped ice (this is "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" Miranda Lambert, after all); kitschy flasks; kooky throw pillows; cookbooks; cowboy boots and so on."
Of Lambert's eight-room B&B, the experienced travel writer observed, "The Ladysmith, in a beautifully restored two-story commercial building built in 1901, across Main Street from the Pink Pistol, houses overnight guests in similar style.
"The Ladysmith is inventively decorated with Lambert's collection of antiques and kitsch. It's blingy, rock 'n' roll and shabby chic, stylish and sassy.
"The lobby includes a sofa created from an old Tilt-A-Whirl car (the throw pillow says "Here comes trouble") and a confessional - or kissing booth, depending on which side of the sign is showing.
"Throughout the building are walls and ceilings of reclaimed wood, custom wallpapers, and hanging light fixtures made from upended buckets. Guest rooms might have a Chevy tailgate or a rustic garden gate for a headboard."
'In the Losa Lounge (losa means black in Chickasaw; the drapes are black and silver) a life-sized Marilyn Monroe statue poses by a vintage bonnet-style hair dryer, a nod to the beauty parlor once housed in the building."
The Ladysmith does have a bar.
"In what once was a law office, the French Quarter bar is open to guests only, and the first cocktail is on the house," explains Dembling. "It's the only place in town with a liquor license, and guests gather there in the evenings. In pleasant weather, you can enjoy your cocktail on the balcony and bask in the glow of the Pink Pistol's neon sign.
"The balcony is also a fine spot for morning coffee, and breakfast is served in shabby-chic style in a bright, spacious upstairs room. An event facility is newly opened on the ground floor for weddings and such."
Dembling skillfully wraps up her travel-wise assessment of Tishomingo and Lambert's efforts there.
"Best of all, if you tire of pink and sparkly," she writes, "you can slip off your silver heels and into something sturdier for some green and gnarly at the Tishomingo Wildlife Refuge, a 25-acre reserve studded with ponds and laced with creeks.
"Then doll yourself back up (or not, no pressure) for cocktails at the Ladysmith, and raise a glass to Miranda Lambert, who brought city style to this small town."
It's obvious that Lambert is well deserving of the toast.
