America's Idol: Underwood Rides

In a pale blue BCBG Max Azria designer dress and impressively high heels, Carrie Underwood is the picture-perfect hostess as she graciously chats with the throng of well-wishers gathered at the Country Music Hall of Fame to celebrate the multiplatinum success of her debut album, "Some Hearts."

Some artists might remain cloistered in a velvet-roped side room during such events. But Underwood -- who in May 2005 became the fourth-season winner of "American Idol" -- seems happy to mingle with the crowd, thanking radio personnel, retailers, journalists and anyone else who has played a role in her fairy-tale rise to superstardom. As the 24-year-old pride of Checotah, Okla., poses for pictures and shakes hands, her mother, Carole -- a retired schoolteacher who still lives in Checotah with Underwood's retired paper-mill worker dad, Steve -- beams proudly.