'I'm coming home in a way that I've always wanted to': Cybill Shepherd duck walks into Hall of Fame

Cybill Shepherd has been a beauty pageant winner, a fashion model and an actress. 

But she hasn't walked as many red carpets or been blinded by as many flash bulbs as the other stars of Thursday evening's show, the Peabody ducks. 

The mallards' ceremonial waddle of an exit from their marble fountain in the lobby of The Peabody preceded Shepherd's ascent of a specially installed lobby podium; it was from this perch that the Memphis-born star of "Moonlighting" was inducted into the historic hotel's Duck Walk Hall of Fame.

"It's not the first time I've been upstaged by ducks," commented Shepherd, 69. 

In 2015, Shepherd served as Honorary Duckmaster at the "South's Grand Hotel." This means she got to help regular Duckmaster Doug Weatherford march the famous waterfowl along the red carpet that connects fountain to elevator, a twice-daily trek that Weatherford says attracts about 250 tourists per trip.

It was at that event that hotel representatives realized Shepherd would be a likely choice for induction into the Duck Walk Hall of Fame during The Peabody's 150th anniversary party Thursday.

"For our special anniversary, we wanted to induct someone special," said Kelly Brock, director of marketing for The Peabody.

"You already have a king of Memphis, don'tcha?" asked Shepherd, rhetorically, referring to previous Duck Walk honoree Elvis Presley. "Well, maybe I gotta be the queen. Woo-hoo!"

Shepherd's exuberance — "I'm a loudmouth, I always was a loudmouth," she said — was not matched by her basic black wardrobe, at least until one took a closer look. 

 Around her neck was a seahorse pendant (which inspired her to wax nostalgic over learning to swim at Pickwick Lake) and on her face were a pair of literal rose-colored glasses (a defense mechanism until the next presidential election, she allowed). 

Shepherd is "irreverent, proud, funny and passionate," said Jack Belz of Belz Enterprises, the company that reanimated a moribund Downtown Memphis when it redeveloped and reopened The Peabody in 1981. 

Belz — who gave his age as "91-and-a-half" — introduced Shepherd, whom he called "a dynamic, beautiful and heartbreaking movie star" (he cited her debut feature, "The Last Picture Show"); "one of television's most gifted comediennes" (a nod to her starring roles in the network series "Moonlighting" and "Cybill"); and "one of the leading activists in the Downtown renaissance" (a reference to her support of The Peabody and other preservation projects).

'I'm coming home in a way that I've always wanted to'

Displayed behind the podium was a panel inlaid with Shepherd's name and the impressions of two webbed feet, in bronze. The panel is destined to be installed in the sidewalk outside The Peabody, alongside the other panels recognizing past Duck Walk honorees.

"I'm coming home in a way that I've always wanted to," said Shepherd, who lives in Los Angeles.

Launched in 1996, the Duck Walk Hall of Fame is a fun way for The Peabody to recognize "people who have elevated the brand or reputation of Memphis in a positive way," Brock said.

Some past honorees include the late Danny Thomas, the entertainer who founded St. Jude Children's Hospital, and Memphis & Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler and Elvis Presley Enterprises chief Jack Soden, both of whom attended Thursday's ceremony. Such other notables as U.S Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and Mayor Jim Strickland were also in attendance. 

More important to the affair's success was Konrad Spitzbart, executive pastry chef at The Peabody, who constructed a crate-sized replica of the hotel out of cake, which he later dismantled with a carving knife, passing out slices of building like a demented giant.

During her brief remarks, Shepherd cited influential teachers and pastors by name as she recalled her days at East High School and Holy Communion Church. 

"I'm very proud of my hometown," she said.

She also reminisced in hopscotch fashion about Orson Welles, Gore Vidal, "Taxi Driver" and her Peter Bogdanovich-directed musical from 1975. 

"I highly recommend a film called 'At Long Last Love,'" she said, before alluding to co-stars Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan and Burt Reynolds. "I'm sorry to say I survived them all."

Music for the event was provided by musicians with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, whose performance of John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton" march provided a live rather than taped soundtrack for the ducks' exit.

In between, performers from Opera Memphis belted out testimonials to the event's hosts that would not replace anyone's fond memories of that "Gilligan's Island" episode in which the castaways wrote new lyrics for "Carmen." Intoned one bass-baritone: "Here's to The Peabody, best of hotels/ Here's to the family Belz."

The symphony orchestra finished with a rendition of the "Moonlighting" theme.