Family Reunions

Several years ago, when I was in my twenties and living in the Bay Area of California, my father called me to tell the news.
He and his mother and her sister Lillie Mae attended the funeral of their half brother in Cincinnati. A half-brother they never knew or saw. He was born in Georgia, like them. He had migrated to Cincinnati, unbeknownst to them. And he had fathered children and grandchildren, like them [well, in their case, mothered]. But they never laid eyes on him until then.

But the interesting part of the news was my father ran into the Jacksons at the funeral. The Jacksons were a family that lived across the street from us in the Village of Woodlawn. They were an interesting family. Good looking, quick-tempered and obviously mixed with Native American [they even had a wolf who they called WOLF as a pet]. Most of the Jackson children were a few years older than me, but one summer one of their nieces moved in with them, we called her Bee-Bee, and she and I quickly bonded. Like me, she was another artist in the making. She sang in her basement.

Anyway, my father saw the Jacksons at the funeral and wanted to know why they were there. They told him because their father had died. The man in the casket was their father. My dad couldn't believe it. He then told them that the man in the casket was his mother's brother.

All of those years living in the Village of Woodlawn, population 2000. 15 miles north of Cincinnati; 30 miles south of Dayton, and we're living, playing and knowing our very own relatives and didn't even know.

Cut to: I'm 22 or so, living in New York City and I'm watching videos and a video comes on called Last Time, featuring Theresa King aka Bee-Bee. I almost flipped through the roof of my very small apartment in Hell's Kitchen. At the time I didn't know Bee-Bee's mom and my dad were first cousins, but she was still a homegirl from Woodlawn and I was so proud.

And then one day, a few years later, I was living in Oakland, California and I saw Bee-Bee walking down 14th Street and boy, what a reunion. We were living in the same city, we were cousins and we we artists. She longer went by Bee-Bee. She was then Theresa King. And her album was called Broken Puzzle.

A few days ago, I was on the phone talking to my good friend Hakeem in California and he was reminiscing about the great female balladeers of the 80s and he mentioned Theresa. He apparently was in love with her. Well, she and Sherrelle.

We both went online and found her video and a myspace page. And then reveled for a good 30 minutes in her self-taught angelic voice.

I haven't seen or spoken to Theresa King aka Bee-Bee since the early 90s, but I hope she's in the Bay Area still singing.

Until next time,

Keith

Enjoy the Memory.

My Cousin Theresa King's MySpace Page