Rising country music star Candy Coburn was strongly influenced by her two grandmothers. When one of them died after a 10-year battle with breast cancer, she hoped to  play a small part in battling the disease.
It worked out a little better than she expected. Coburn’s song about her grandmother, titled “Pink Warrior,” will be the theme song for Susan G. Komen for the Cure from 2009 to 2011. The organization also asked her to travel to Komen-associated events around the country with her song and her message of hope. All proceeds from the song will go to the battle against breast cancer.
On Tuesday, Coburn sang at the 11th annual Breast Cancer Candlelight Vigil, held at the Pittsburg State University Lake.
“My grandmother was a second grade teacher at a little town in Kentucky,” Coburn said during an interview before the vigil. “She was a gardener and had the prettiest ditch in the world in front of  her house, and mowed her own grass. She was an artist. She was always helping people, and would take food to people 20 years younger than she was. She was probably the most loved person in her county, and the biggest spirited woman I’ve ever met.”
It was her other grandmother who influenced her musically, and Coburn’s independent record label, Loma Jean, is named in her honor.
“She’s still a great singer, and sings every Sunday at my uncle’s church in Louisiana,” Coburn said. “She taught us to sing really young, but I didn’t start writing my own songs until about seven years ago.”
Coburn wanted to do a song to honor her grandmother, as well as other family members lost to cancer.
“Everyone  in our family who has passed away has died from some kind of cancer,” she said.
She got together with friends Candy Cameron, Roxie Dean and Kaci Bolls to put “Pink Warrior” Together. 
“They’re all great loud-mouthed girls,” Coburn said. “I wanted to write something that meant something. A lot of stuff out there now isn’t too deep — you know what I’m saying.”
She wanted to get the song to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but thought that would probably take a year. Instead, it was there in a month and, in a conference call she took while in her kitchen, Coburn got the news that it would be the Komen theme song.
She’s also traveling the country with the song.
“I’ll be headlining the Tulsa State Fair, and will open it on Thursday,” Coburn said. “At the Florida State Fair they’re doing a pink ticket for when I’m there, with a part of the proceeds going to Susan G. Komen. At the New York State Fair, a donor bought 100 tickets so 100 breast cancer survivors were able to attend the show for free. I had a whole pink section there.”
Coburn said she’s honored to be part of Susan G. Komen, and was thrilled to meet Nancy G. Brinker, who founded the organization after promising her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.
Her travels are going well.
“I keep waiting for one of these towns I visit to not be nice, but they’re all wonderful,” Coburn said.
She said she first performed in Pittsburg 3 1/2 years ago.
“I’ve always loved Pittsburg,” said Coburn, who was born and grew up in Kentucky and attended the University of Missouri on a music scholarship. “The downtown is so cute and the people are so nice. Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium is one of my favorite places to play.”