Second Cup Café: Mary Donnelly Haskell

Mary Donnelly Haskell started singing in her church's children's choir when she was only five years old. She's still singing the music that inspired her as a child, but now she's mixing it with contemporary inspirational songs in her new album, "The Power of The Cross."

She visits Second Cup Café to sing songs from the album.

"My roots are deep Southern gospel, and I also have a love for all of the contemporary worship music that is out now," Haskell says in press notes for the album.

Haskell sang throughout her childhood and ended up a music major at the University of Mississippi. While there she discovered she had a talent for acting which she later parlayed into a successful film and television career.

She has appeared in more than 20 TV movies and has had recurring and guest-starring roles on shows such as "Sisters," "Touched By an Angel" and "7th Heaven." Although she had a successful stage career for several years, she transitioned to working on television because it allowed her more time with her children.

She recorded three albums of personalized songs for children before releasing her Christian music debut, "Inspired: Standards — Good For the Soul" in 2005.

In "Power of the Cross," Mary had the opportunity to record with the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

"It was remarkable," she said. "Probably half of the players don't even speak English. It's the universal language of hymns they certainly recognize. You could just see their faces light up. The older Czech players didn't know English, but you could clearly see in their face that they really just enjoyed it. It was such a blessed experience."