Terry Moffitt is a very funny woman. You might say she’s the Weird Al Yankovic of Park City. She’s a co-conspirator of “Park City Follies,” the annual Egyptian Theatre fundraiser and rite-of-spring that lampoons current events in town. Moffitt re-writes lyrics to popular songs for the show, creating hilarious musical numbers that target and skewer all things near-and-dear to Parkites. “It’s just this weird ability I have to make up funny lyrics to songs,” she explains. Though she stops short of performing her work, she sure stirs the pot.

It all started 10 years ago when Moffitt was in the show. “I noticed there wasn’t any music and offered to help put in some numbers. That’s grown to about 10 musical numbers in the show for the last few years,” she says. Disciples of the show come back year after year now to see and hear her cleverly choreographed show-stoppers.

A longtime Park City resident, Moffitt knows her adopted hometown better than most. Her journey here began in Minnesota, where she grew up playing sports, camping and canoeing with her family on the state’s abundant lakes and rivers. During long and frigid winters, she went ice skating. “As a teenager, I routinely fell in love with whichever high school boy was in charge of the warming shed,” she admits. She remembers a series of clubs she formed as a kid. “I had the movie club, the horse club, the ‘Monkees’ fan club and, my favorite, the secret club. Of, course, I was in charge of all of them,” she grins.

Moffitt insists she’s proud she grew up in the Midwest. “You don’t whine, complain or procrastinate. You just get things done. And you love potluck.”

After high school, Moffitt moved west to attend Oregon State University in Corvallis, where she took a degree in broadcasting and speech communications. She met her husband, Larry, at college. They married a week after she graduated. Larry was a Navy pilot and the couple bounced around the country for the next few years. Moffitt began her broadcasting career while they were stationed in Corpus Christie, Texas. “I was a TV reporter for the very worst station in probably all of Texas,” she says. “When one of the noon anchors passed out with a hangover, I was put on the air to anchor the noon news. I had 15 minutes to prepare but thought, hey, I couldn’t be any worse than anyone else at that station.”

After the Navy, Larry signed on as a pilot with Delta and they moved to Portland, Maine. He flew out of Delta’s Boston hub; she got a job as a reporter and fill-in anchor at a Portland TV station. “It was a much better station,” she laughs. The Moffitts began their family in Maine. They have two daughters, Lauren and Sarah.

The fledgling family moved to Park City almost 25 years ago, soon after Delta opened its Salt Lake City hub. “It was a good move for us and got us closer to family. We chose Park City for its great outdoor recreation and small town feel,” says Moffitt. She took a few years off while shepherding her growing family before returning to work. She’s worked for several years as a copywriter with Clear Channel Communications in Salt Lake.

Though her creative collaboration on the Follies is her greatest joy as a writer, it’s not all fun and games for Moffitt. She has a long history of volunteering for worthy causes in town. She volunteered in the schools her girls attended and served on the boards of “Friends of the Library” and “Friends of the Farm.” For the last several years her nonprofit-of-choice has been the People’s Health Clinic, where she handles their media needs.

“People are often surprised when they learn about the clinic,” she says. “They don’t understand how there could possibly be such a need in this town. Well, there is. This is a recreation ski town and there are a lot of people here who work two or three jobs to make this engine go. A lot of those people don’t have health insurance.”

The Moffitt daughters are grown and have moved away. Lauren is married and lives in San Diego. Sarah, a former Park Record reporter, lives in San Francisco. “It’s great when your kids live in places you like to visit,” says Moffitt. She bubbles when she reveals she’ll be a grandmother in another month or so. “I’ll be taking a little time off to go down to San Diego and meet my first grandchild.”

After her return, The Follies conspirators will resume meeting every Wednesday night at the Moffitt’s house to brainstorm for next spring’s show. “We meet at my house because I like to cook,” says Moffitt. She’s tight lipped about the show. “There’s always plenty of material to work with in this town. We’ve got some ideas,” she adds with a twinkle.

VITAL STATISTICS

  • Favorite things: Hiking, snowshoeing, volunteering, Farmer’s Market and outdoor concerts, exercising next to Olympians at the gym, summer evenings in my backyard with friends and a bottle of wine
  • Favorite foods: Caramel-ripple ice cream, Volker’s focaccia bread, fresh nectarines and my husband’s vegetarian burgers
  • Favorite reading: Historical fiction, Wallace Stegner, Amy Tan, David Sedaris and Tom Clyde’s column
  • Favorite performers: James Taylor, Train, Bruno Mars and Barry Manilow. Yes, Barry Manilow.
  • Animal companions: Gilbert, an 18-year-old goldfish. “I babysit my friend’s’ dogs when I can.”
  • Bucket list: Live in Italy for a while; drive around New Zealand’s South Island in a camper van for a couple of months; learn to play the harmonica; have an advice column