Dunkirk girl receives mysterious musical gift By TIM LATSHAW OBSERVER Photo by Tim Latshaw Kaitlin Promber, 11, poses with her new guitar, “Lucille.” The guitar was purchased for Promber by an anonymous couple after they are said to have heard her playing it inside Crino Music. 12/24/2007 - OBSERVER Assistant News Editor Yes, Virginia, real-life guitar heroes do exist. Kaitlin Promber knows firsthand.

An 11-year-old guitarist on the rise, she was recently on the receiving end of a musical Christmas gift from a couple of mysterious benefactors. Kaitlin, who has been playing since the age of 8, takes weekly lessons at Crino Music. Afterward, she enjoys hooking into an amp in the display area and playing even more, often accompanied by store workers who give her advice.

There was one guitar she fell in love with during these post-lesson sessions: an Ibanez Artcore, an electric model that commonly retails for about $500. “It’s very pretty and looked like B. B. King’s guitar,” she said. She immediately christened the instrument “Lucille” — the name blues legend King has given to all of his guitars — and committed herself to saving up for it. If she could come up with half the cost, her family would supply the rest. But she never got the chance.

Someone had beat her to the purchase. “When we went in (Friday) for lessons, her teacher and all the guys who work at the store were standing in there waiting for her, and they had the guitar up on a stand with a big red bow on it,” Tracy Promber, Kaitlin’s mother, said. At first they thought it was a joke or that the guitar had been decorated for someone else. It was, however, entirely for her — all the way down to the engraving of “Lucille” on the headstock.