Vicki McClure

At the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, supermarket checker Vicki McClure brought 92,000 people in the Coliseum to their feet, joining her in singing "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand." Her stirring performance, part of the $5-million extravaganza with 10,000 dancers, marchers, singers and musicians, athletes from 140 nations, 2,500 pigeons and 84 pianos, was seen by television viewers around the world. Originally , McClure, a checker at the Hughes Market in Canoga Park, was just the rehearsal stand-in for Diana Ross when Olympics officials were considering having a star sing at the opening. But she was chosen for the real thing because as an unknown, she reflected the youth and amateur image that organizers hoped to project for the games. McClure sang a message of community and equality. Today, she's still working at Hughes. From her Santa Monica apartment, with ocean view, piano and tapes of Aretha Franklin, Bobby McFerrin, Eric Clapton and Ernestine Anderson, she recalls that for her, the Olympics reaffirmed that "we have to raise our consciousness, become selfless, look to wisdom" instead of being "addicted to money and fame."