Lilly Anne Svrlinga with Randall Franks at the Boxcar Pinion Festival
South Carolina teen grasser Lilly Anne Svrlinga has been named as the designee for the 2025 Pearl and Floyd Franks Scholarship. Upon entering college, she will receive a $1,000 award to apply to tuition and student costs from the Share America Foundation.
Festival goers in the southeastern US will recognize Lilly Anne as a guitarist and vocalist with Creekwater Collective, a band of high schoolers who are making waves wherever they appear. She stands out as a singer, songwriter, and flatpicker, and she’s only getting started!
The Pearl and Floyd Franks Scholarship was created with a twin purpose, to honor the parents of actor and fiddler Randall Franks, who sits on the Share America Foundation Board, and to assist noteworthy young performers achieve their educational aspirations. It is supported by donations from the general public, plus grants from the Kiwanis Club of Fort Oglethorpe and the Wes and Shirley Smith Charitable Endowment.
Lilly Anne is 15 years old, and a homeschooled freshman in high school, with plans to attend ETSU and study in their Bluegrass, Old Time and Roots Music Studies program upon graduation.
She says that she is deeply grateful for this scholarship, and for all the help she has received along the way.
“I want to thank Randall Franks for providing this scholarship to me. It really means a lot and will help me so much on my musical journey. I am so blessed to have the ability to play and sing such wonderful music, and I use music as another way to glorify God.
I’m the kind of person that if I want something, I’m going to go for it. I’ve been that way since the day I was born. It takes want to!
I want to thank everyone for supporting me all these years. I wouldn’t be here without ya’ll.
God bless and keep on riding this bluegrass train with me.”
Lilly Anne tells us that she is excited to keep working on her songwriting, and looking forward to writing with Caroline Owens this summer.
Congratulations and best of luck to this talented young lady. We can’t wait to see what she does in the coming years.
