Around age fourteen, I quit drinking gin with Miss Lil (see 3/21 entry below) and dragged my stack of gospel music and Baptist hymnals to piano lessons. I had dedicated my life to the Lord and wanted to play His music. Miss Lil rolled her eyes, but did my bidding. She loved gospel music, too, and tried to teach me to play like Aretha Franklin during her Muscle Shoals sessions. I picked up chord improvisation and did my best. I was white, but was sure that the Lord would provide me with the proper soulfulness.
By sixteen I began dating other Christians who shared my evangelical zeal. Sometimes these dates turned into familiar making out sessions - with Eddie, I think this happened in a 1964 Falcon with wide bench seats. With Butch, a hot date meant holding a black leather Bible between our laps, thighs touching, reading some stern admonition from that most uptight patron saint of chaperones, St. Paul. Eventually I settled on my future husband Jack, who not only enjoyed all of the above but offered the additional cachet of knowing Lester White and the White Family.
Jack played guitar and wrote songs in a somewhat lazy seventies-style. He would earnestly sing ballads while his hair and beard grew longer. He began to resemble seventies Jesus, the hippie God who ruled the cooler churches back then. We formed a shifting coalition of musicians and singers who became our band - Butch, Sonya, Danny, Eddie, Gary, and a few others over those three years or so. This was our mission, sharing the Good News with church after church in Savannah, Garden City, Port Wentworth, and Pooler.
At least three times, the gracious White Family let us open for them at black churches around the county.
The White Family was an institution in local gospel music. Brother White was a blind guitarist who might have had a career in blues music had he chosen that path. Sister Sarah and their grown children Lester and his sister (forgotten her name) sang along Staples Singers-style. They were great, and we were white kids trying to keep up. But we were convinced that God would bless our efforts.
While I am grateful that no tapes exist of our musical attempts, I am so glad that Jack and I spent time with the White Family. They were kind, encouraging, and loving as they invited us into their home and into churches that would not normally ask grinning Caucasian wannabes to minister to them through music. The average five year old in those congregations could sing rings around us.
I began to really love black churches and started attending a few on Sunday evenings with Jack. But back then it was hard to fit in - this was before southern churches began to integrate on any level - and we went back to the white church.
I lost my religion, moved away, and lost track of the White Family. But on Sunday I was scanning the obituaries online - a regular obsession of mine - and found one for Sister Sarah:
Sarah L. White - SAVANNAH - White Family Singer, Founder, and Legendary Gospel Singer Dies at 82 Renowned gospel singer, recording artist and exemplary mother, Sarah L. White, made her transition from mortal to immortality on Sunday March 6, 2008 with family and friends around her bedside. She was under the care of Hospice of Savannah, Inc. Born, November 23, 1925 and educated in Liberty County, she lived all of her adult life in Savannah. Her husband of 42 years; Minister James White preceded her in death. They raised five children in the Pentecostal Faith. Popular radio personality; Lester Lec'k White is her baby son. Affectionately known as a "songbird", Sarah was the founder and lead vocalist of the award winning White Family Singers. The group was esteemed by the masses, including mayors, governors, senators, and even president of Egypt; Anwar Sadat, Evangelist Oral Roberts, and actress Carol Burnett. A tribute in 2005 to induct the singing clan into the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, Savannah Mayor Otis S. Johnson Stated; "your unique ability to enthrall audiences is confirmed that you possess n extraordinary musical gift that is being used to speak and encourage the lives of others." She leaves to honor and respect her legacy her sons; James (Angela), Julius, and Lester White, adopted son; Edward (Dorothea) Lowe, Jr., daughters and stepdaughters respectfully; Kathleen (Leroy) White-Scott, Sarah Glover, Ruth White-Coles, 16 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great-grandchildren.
NTD
P.S. For those who want to hear a sample of the White Family's music, there's a downloadable version of 'Wonderful World' about halfway down the following page:
http://www.sirshambling.com/articles/gospel_soul.htm
3 comments:
May her soul rest in peace. There are few greater testimonies than
to have glorified God through song over a lifetime of comitted devotion.
May her soul rest in peace. There are few greater testimonies than to glorify God through song over a lifetime of comitted devotion.
I did not have the opportunity to meet Sis. White in person, but I have met her seed, Lester White. If he is anything like his mother, she had to be an awesome woman of God. I am in a way connected to your family and pray that someday the Lord would allow us to meet.
Peace be with you, White family, now and always.
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