HURRICANE KATRINA Music treasure turns up in debris

The woman was shocked to see Johnny Cash's autograph on the guitar.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
BILOXI, Miss. -- Tabatha Murray, a waitress at the Waffle House in downtown Biloxi, walked a line to the restaurant after Hurricane Katrina passed to see if it survived.
The restaurant was gone, but she found what is thought to be a rock 'n' roll treasure in the debris -- a vintage guitar that appears to have Johnny Cash's autograph on it. Seven weeks later, she is shipping the guitar to Hard Rock Cafe's international headquarters in Orlando, Fla.
Don Bernstine, manager of acquisitions for Hard Rock, said the company appreciated her gesture and asked that anyone else who may have memorabilia from the Hard Rock Biloxi Casino follow her example. He would not say how much of the rock 'n' roll memorabilia from the casino is missing.
Hard Rock owns items
Katrina destroyed the casino's gambling barge and heavily damaged its hotel. The casino resort belongs to Biloxi-based Premier Entertainment, but its memorabilia collection actually belongs to Orlando-based Hard Rock Cafe. The memorabilia the casino had leased included a guitar and clothing from the "Man in Black."
"When people have a lot of tragedy in life, we really appreciate when they call and tell us they've found something," Bernstine said. "We're hoping to get this back, and we really appreciate it."
Murray, who lives in Gautier, Miss., found the guitar when she and friends who had ridden out the hurricane at her home returned to Biloxi. She decided to see her place of work while she was there. The graveyard-shift waitress saw a Fender strap in a pile of debris.
"I picked it up to look at it, and it was signed by Johnny Cash," she said. "I said, 'Oh, my God.' There were people digging through it looking for stuff from the Hard Rock."
Murray said she stayed in South Carolina -- and took the guitar with her -- until she could return to the Gulf Coast. She contacted Hard Rock officials and then called the newspaper.
"I have had so many people, just by word of mouth, people I trusted, wanting to rip me off to get this guitar," she said. "I'm just happy to get it back to Hard Rock."
Will ship it
Hard Rock will pay the shipping costs for the guitar. Murray, whose car is inoperable, said she would send it by UPS as soon as she can get a ride.
A single mother, she had transferred to the Biloxi Waffle House two weeks before the hurricane hit after working at another Waffle House in Moss Point, Miss.