June 21, 2006

Where are they now?
MHS grad shows model behavior

Stacy Barnes

Many girls grow up dreaming of being a working model in New York and for one Mustang native living that life is reality. Amanda Marcum Enfield is a 1996 graduate of Mustang High School. She says working as a model in the Oklahoma City area during her younger years gave her an itch to seek out a career in the Big Apple.

Working at a local grocery store, she saved the money she earned and made the move to New York shortly after graduation. There she signed with the now defunct Voli Modeling Agency for two years and later with Marilyn Modeling Agency.

Enfield’s career allowed her to travel all over the world while earning a “great living”. While in New York she says she lived mostly in Manhattan on the lower east and upper west sides and says she wouldn’t trade the experiences she’s had since leaving her hometown.

“Getting paid to go to all these really cool places was amazing,” she said. “I got to travel to so many places—Australia, Indonesia, all over Europe and Asia.”

But it wasn’t always glitz and glamour. Just like other jobs, Enfield had to work her way up.

“In the very beginning of my career I did some mannequin modeling where you go stand in the window in a mall and look like a mannequin,” she said. “I’m almost embarrassed to tell you that. But it was still kind of fun.”

While in Oklahoma, most of her work was in supplemental fashion publications. After signing with the NY based agencies, Enfield modeled for several designer campaigns including Armani, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger and Guess. She also appeared in advertising and catalogs for major companies like L’Oreal, Macy’s, JC Penny and Bergdorf Goodman, just to name a few.

Enfield says she loves modeling, but recently took on a new job she loves even more—being mom to two month old Aila, her first born child with husband Andy, whom she met at an NCAA tournament in Boston.

Andy has an impressive resume as well. He played basketball for Johns Hopkins University and while there scored more than 2000 points. He still holds the record as the best free throw shooter in NCAA history with a 92.5% NCAA career percentage record (431 of 466).

Andy has coached in the NBA and has worked with many of the NBA basketball players and teams to help improve their shooting. Last month the couple moved to Tallahassee, Florida so that he could accept the job as assistant coach at Florida State University.

Enfield, who continued to model maternity wear while pregnant with Aila, says she isn’t sure how much work she will get now that the family has moved, but motherhood will keep her plenty busy for now.

“It’s the hardest job ever,” she said. “It’s such an amazing thing. You love them more every day. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”

Throughout the years Enfield has continued to come back to Mustang at least twice a year to visit her family and friends and says she is pleased with the changes she sees.

“My family lives over by 7-11 and all that land on Highway 92 all the way to Yukon used to be just land and now it’s all developments,” she said. “It’s getting bigger, but the people are still so nice. I still love Oklahoma and I’m really glad I grew up there.”

One person she says influenced her life was her ninth grade English teacher, Mrs. Niles.

“She was my favorite teacher. She was beautiful and intelligent and she loved her job,” Enfield said. Enfield is the daughter of Keith and Carol Marcum of Mustang.

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