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Friends to
By Tim Ryan
fete Nabors
Star-BulletinJim Nabors's 70th birthday next month will be celebrated by a few hundred friends and business associates at an upstate, upscale New York estate at the expense of businessman Richard W. Bowen II.
Bowen and his wife, Terri, of East Aurora in Erie County, are hosting two days of festivities -- June 16 and 17 -- that will include an outdoor sit-down dinner for as many as 250 people. Nabors will host a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres reception June 16 at a restaurant in nearby Amherst.
Guests include a mix of mainland and Hawaii friends and business associates. Celebrity invitees include Andy Griffith, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, and "Entertainment Tonight" co-host Mary Hart. Although the guest list is confidential, a few Hawaii residents have been invited, including publicist Lisa Josephsohn.
Nabors' actual birth date is June 12.
Celebrants on June 17 will be transported in several buses from their hotels to Niagara Falls for an hourlong boat tour on the "Maid of the Mist," followed by a "Picnic at the Falls." (The invitation suggests that "Mist" passengers wear "rain slickers or wet suits.")
Nabors and Bowen met when the entertainer put his Oahu home up for sale soon after his liver transplant surgery in 1994. Bowen was the first potential buyer to look at the historic home, which since has been taken off the market.
When the Bowens learned that Nabors sometimes performs at Niagara Falls hotels, they invited him to stay with them at their East Aurora estate. Then Nabors hosted the Bowens' wedding reception at his beachfront Diamond Head home in August 1998.
Guests will pay their own travel and accommodation expenses.
Nabors on Sunday taped an "Hour of Power" program at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., for broadcast at a future date.
He'll also perform in the next few weeks at the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan, sing the national anthem at the Indianapolis 500, and make several public appearances in New York City to publicize his new -- and first -- gospel CD.
Nabors, who was born in Sylacauga, Ala., has recorded about 40 albums, including five gold and one platinum.
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