Why she's interesting: The Lorain native took a twirl in the spotlight when her songs were featured on Bravo's The Rachel Zoe Project and VH1's Breaking Bonaduce, where she served as The Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce's assistant. She gave up fame in favor of helping patients at University Hospitals, conducting the largest trial in history to study music therapy in the surgical arena with breast cancer patients. The results, which showed hearing music before surgery reduced patient anxiety by 42 percent, were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, making Palmer an international rock star after all.
Crowing Achievement: Her first solo performance came at age 3. Too young to officially graduate preschool with the 4 year olds, she wore a Burger King crown and crooned "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby" at the ceremony. "Afterward, I told my dad this is what I wanted to do."
Let's Marvin Gaye: Whether its using music to help a man speak again or to assist a woman in hospice in writing a legacy song, Palmer loves how music therapy gives patients a choice at a time when they have little say. Palmer recalls a breast cancer patient who was initially too anxious for surgery but was able to go through with the second attempt after Palmer sang "Sexual Healing" at her request. "She was laughing. The doctor came in and the nurses were dancing. Instead of being the scared lady with breast cancer, she became the really fun lady who wanted 'Sexual Healing.' "
Foreign Exchange: Palmer's husband, Oliver, was assigned an engineering job in April that will keep her and their 2-year-old daughter, Roma, in the Netherlands through 2017. She likes to take Roma to Dutch music and dance classes and even included her vocals on "Little Sparrow," a song on the Kickstarter-funded The Dutch Sessions album Palmer is recording abroad. "She sees my guitar and says, 'Mommy's guitar.' She strums it."
Mom Squad: While Palmer has logged a few reality TV hours with Bonaduce, she's not the only family member who's been on the tube. Her mother, Debora, went on a trapeze date with a young gent trying to become a suitor for Jaclyn on MTV's Date My Mom. Although they didn't win, the two shared many laughs. "I learned fast that reality TV isn't realistic. [They'd] say, 'Now your mom is going to say this.' It was so silly."
