Taylor Hicks's First Crush: Found!

Thursday June 29, 2006 07:20 AM EDT

Worsham (center), with Hicks (left), and a friend.

COURTESY Christy Lee Worsham

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Just two weeks after American Idol winner Taylor Hicks told PEOPLE about his very first crush, the magazine received a call from the object of his affection, Christy Lee Worsham.

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Now 32 and a stay-at-home mom, Worsham tells PEOPLE in its new issue, "I don't think I realized how big his crush was until I read about it."

But Hicks, 29, never forgot about her. "I was in the second grade; she was in the sixth," he told PEOPLE. "To a certain degree, I still like older women. I've dated more older women than younger women."

"He was such a fun kid," Worsham recalls, and adds that she wouldn't mind catching up with the Soul Patrolman. "I'm married," she tells PEOPLE. "But I'd love to reconnect. He was like a brother to me."

The proof is in the picture: In this 1984 snapshot, the smitten future Idol (left), then 7, poses with Worsham (center), then 10, and a friend at a YMCA summer program they attended in Huntsville, Ala.