Grammy Award-winner Naomi Judd said she researched the Women for Women organization before she agreed to speak at their Power of the Purse luncheon Wednesday at the Greenville Convention Center.

"You can't make me do something I don't want to do," she sassily told the audience of 840 women — and two men. "When I checked you out, I was blown away by this organization."

WOMEN FOR WOMEN SLIDE SHOW Scene Around at the Power of the Purse lunch on May 7 Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector (ENLARGE)

Entertainer Naomi Judd speaks during the annual Power of the Purse luncheon at the Greenville Convention Center on Wednesday. 'I know the power that comes when we all get together,' Judd told the crowd.

(ENLARGE)

Judd signs copies of her cookbook 'Naomi's Home Companion: A Treasury of Favorite Recipes, Food for Thought and Country Wit and Wisdom,' after her speech.

Women for Women is comprised of local women committed to becoming effective philanthropists through the power of collective giving through a Greater Greenville Community Foundation fund. Grants are awarded annually to programs and agencies supporting area women and girls.

"I'm here to celebrate our sisterhood," Judd said. "I know the power that comes when we all get together."

The 840 women in attendance raised their purses — both literally and figuratively — at the third annual Power of the Purse luncheon.

At the urging of Women for Women Chairwoman Debi Lee, each woman held her purse over her head in a show of solidarity.

"Women are represented symbolically by the purse," Lee said. "So where's the power? The power is in all the financial resources and in how we choose to use them."

Lee thanked the gathered women for "spending $100 to put gas in the car, and then spending another $100" to attend the event, where Judd regaled the audience with stories of her often-troubled background and her philosophy of life.

She arrived in Greenville fresh off a May 3 reunion concert with her daughter, Wynonna, in Palm Springs, Calif. The show marked the first time in seven years the mother-daughter duo, The Judds — the signature country act of the 1980s — performed together on stage.

"I've been rhinestone free for about 10 years and I fell off the wagon. I loved it," she said about the concert, attended by 40,000 fans.

The Judds sold 20 million albums, recorded such hits as "Mama He's Crazy" and "Love Can Build a Bridge," and earned six Grammy Awards before Naomi Judd was diagnosed with life-threatening Heptatis C in 1991.

"I was on the top of the world. Then all of a sudden, bam, I was the patient instead of the nurse," said Judd, a former ICU nurse. "I was told by the Mayo Clinic I had three years to live. I told the doctor, 'No, I am going to live long enough for Wynonna and (actress daughter) Ashley to blame me for all their problems."

Now cured, she said she is "a medically documented miracle ... I'm the happiest and healthiest I've ever been in my life."

While she was recovering, she said, she began writing her autobiography. This process led to her philosophy of life, of sorts: "Shift happens" and you have to adapt to the changes.

It also forced her to look back upon her life and make sense of it all. "I became a detective of my own life," she said as she walked through the audience, looking directly at audience members and calling them by the name on their name tags.

She related details from her life, including her pregnancy at age 17, a brother's death, her parents' divorce, her mother's inability to express her love, the domestic abuse she suffered and a manager's embezzlement.

"It's liberating to figure out your story," she said. "When you are defined, nothing can shake you."

She encouraged the women in the audience to "become detectives in your own life and figure out your story. It will free you."

All proceeds from the luncheon go to the Women for Women endowment fund, which now totals more than $200,000. Grant recipients since 2006 have included Operation Sunshine, Carolina Pregnancy Center, Family Violence Center, Zoe House and North Pitt High School's "Baby Think It Over" program.

For more information on joining Women for Women, visit the Web site www.womenforwomengreenville.com.