Angels & Mentors Archives - Page 7 of 20 - StoryCorps

François Clemmons and Karl Lindholm

In February 1968, the children’s television program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted nationally.

Besides its eponymous creator, the show also featured a cast of characters from Mister Rogers’ make-believe world (King Friday XIII, Daniel Striped Tiger, and Bob Dog), and his “real” world (Mr. and Mrs. McFeely, Lady Aberlin, and Handyman Negri).

clemmons2François Clemmons was cast in the “real” world as Officer Clemmons.

Fred Rogers met François in 1968 after hearing him sing in a Pittsburgh-area church they both attended. He was so impressed with his voice that he asked him to join the show. At the time, François was a graduate student working on getting his singing career going and was reluctant to accept Fred’s offer. But after realizing he would get paid to appear on the show—enabling him to afford his rent—François accepted, becoming the first African American actor to have a recurring role on a children’s television series.

For 25 years François appeared on the show while maintaining a separate career as a professional singer. In 1973, his performance with the Cleveland Orchestra earned him a Grammy Award and his love of spiritual music later led him to found the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble. He also spent 16 years as an artist-in-residence at Middlebury College in Vermont until his retirement in 2013.

François came to StoryCorps with his friend, Karl Lindholm (pictured together above), to discuss how he became the friendly singing Officer Clemmons, and his relationship with the man known to children as Mister Rogers.

Originally aired March 11, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Tom Houck and Angelo Fuster

In 1965, Tom Houck was a high school senior when he decided to drop out of school and join the fight for civil rights.

Leaving Jacksonville, Florida, and heading to Selma, Alabama, Tom, 19, eventually met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and quickly volunteered to work for Dr. King’s Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Soon after his arrival in Atlanta, Tom was invited to the King home for lunch and Dr. King’s wife—Coretta—asked him to become the family’s driver.

Tom, who has continued to spend his life fighting for civil rights, came to StoryCorps with his friend, Angelo Fuster (pictured below left), to share memories of his time with the King family.   HouckNPR1-636x470

Originally aired January 15, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Top Photo: Tom Houck in front of a mural at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. (Credit: Todd Burandt)

StoryCorps 451: Holiday Highlights

‘Tis the season for the StoryCorps Christmas podcast.

sears-santa-adThis week we hear stories about a father who helped start the annual tradition of keeping track of Santa Claus as he flies across the globe making his Christmas Eve rounds, a struggling mother reveals how she was able to throw big, memorable holiday celebrations for her children, and a teacher who helped a young boy deal with sadness and loss during most children’s happiest time of the year.

Every Christmas Eve, people worldwide log on to the official Santa Tracker to follow the man himself (along with his eight reindeer and Rudolph), as they deliverer presents to boys and girls. In our first story, Terri Van Keuren (top left), Richard Shoup, and Pamela Farrell (top right) discuss the important role their father—Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup—played in starting that tradition.

Colonel Shoup was stationed at the Continental Air Defense Command (now known as NORAD) which was tasked with protecting U.S. air space from Soviet attack in 1955 when a misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper (see above) listed the number for one of the secure military phones on his desk as a direct line for children to call and talk to Santa. Much to his surprise and consternation, a phone that normally remained silent, began to ring regularly.

His three children came to StoryCorps to remember their father, an important and serious man with an accomplished military record, who considered giving kids yearly updates on the location of Kris Kringle his proudest professional accomplishment.

conley_600x400Next we hear from Carrie Conley whose husband left her to raise their six children on her own. She came to StoryCorps with her youngest child, Jerry Johnson (pictured together at left), who told his mom, “I cannot remember one Christmas that I didn’t feel like the luckiest kid in the world.”

What Jerry didn’t know at the time was how his mother made their celebrations so special. Carrie would save up all her sick days no matter how ill she was and later cash them out, taking the money to the Salvation Army to purchase toys donated by wealthier families in anticipation of the new ones their children would soon be receiving.

And while Carrie made a lot of sacrifices for her children, one concession she would not make, regardless of how much holiday spirit she possessed, was to give credit where it was not due, telling her son, “I never did tell you it was Santa Claus ’cause I said that I can not give no man credit for when I work.”

prd000172_g3Finally, we hear from John Cruitt, whose mother passed away two days before Christmas in 1958. At the time, John was a student in Cecile Doyle’s third grade class at Emerson School in Kearny, New Jersey.

When John returned to school, Cecile was there for him with gentle words and a kind gesture that gave John hope at a very difficult time. More than 50 years later—John, now a teacher himself—reached out to Cecile to thank her for helping change his life.

And while they came to StoryCorps to talk about how Cecile helped John, she revealed how his letter, after all these years, helped her through a difficult time as well.

Merry Christmas from the StoryCorps podcast.

Paul Nilsen and Tom Graziano

In the early 1980s, Tom Graziano and his wife adopted an almost 2-year-old boy named John. As a child, he was constantly sick, but doctors were never able to determine why.

Screen Shot 2015-12-02 at 4.24.46 PM

In 1986, when John was in the second grade at Central Elementary School in Wilmette, Illinois, his parents discovered the reason for his health problems—John was HIV positive having contracted the disease from his biological mother.

At StoryCorps, Tom sat down with John’s elementary school principal, Paul Nilsen (seen above left), to discuss the reaction of other students attending the school and among members of their suburban Chicago community to John during the AIDS epidemic in America.

John died in May 1989, just days shy of his 10th birthday.

Originally aired December 4, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photo of John courtesy of Tom Graziano.

StoryCorps 449: Lessons in Love

In this podcast, we look back on the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when little was known about the disease including just how far-reaching and destructive it would become.

teper_2In our first story, we hear from Stefan Lynch Strassfeld. Growing up in San Francisco in the late 70s and early 80s, Stefan was raised by his gay father, Michael Lynch, and his stepfather, Bill Lewis (top photo second from right). Surrounded by a large network of his fathers’ friends, Stefan referred to his extended family as “his aunties.” Beginning in 1982, Stefan watched a number of those he was closest to die from AIDS. He came to StoryCorps with his friend, Beth Teper (below), to remember how the disease devastated his world.

Stefan later became the first director of COLAGE, a national organization that connects people who have lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer parents.

burksOur second story brings us to the South. Ruth Coker Burks was a young mother in her early 20s when the AIDS epidemic hit her home state of Arkansas. Despite having no medical training, Ruth took it upon herself to care for those suffering from the disease when their families, and even trained medical professionals, abandoned them.

Ruth estimates that she cared for nearly a thousand people since the early 1980s, with one of those being Paul Wineland’s partner. Ruth and Paul (above) sat down for StoryCorps to talk about her experience visiting a friend at a Little Rock hospital where one of the state’s early AIDS patients lay dying.

harwoodNot all the people Ruth helped care for were abandoned. Over the years, she met many people who stayed with their loved ones. In our next story, Jim Harwood (above), whose son died of AIDS, reconnects at StoryCorps with Ruth more than a decade after they last spoke.

In our final story, we hear from Reverend Eric Williams. In 1991 in Kansas City, Missouri, he was a young pastor who had just taken charge of his own church when he received a phone call from a funeral home asking him to bury a gay man who had died from AIDS. His first reaction was to refuse. But as he told his colleague Jannette Berkley-Patton (below) at StoryCorps, “everything good that I have been able to accomplish has started with some kind of a burden. And AIDS burdened me. So reluctantly, I did the funeral.”

Williams_lgAccording to Rev. Williams, the experience of meeting the boy’s family changed him and since that time he has devoted himself to ministering to people with AIDS and their families, as well as educating others about the disease.

For more information about HIV/AIDS click here.

 

Like the music in this episode? Support the artists:
“Lola” by Podington Bear from the album Thoughtful
“Repose” by Podington Bear from the album Tender
“Trist” by Podington Bear from the album Duets
“Genius and the Thieves” by Eluvium from the album An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death
“The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan” by Chris Zabriskie from the album Undercover Vampire Policeman

 

StoryCorps 448: Something To Be Thankful For

In this podcast, we hear about three Thanksgiving traditions: feeding strangers, feeding neighbors, and listening to the ones you love.

macaulay_lgThe first story is from Scott Macaulay, who every Thanksgiving cooks dinner for strangers in his hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts. At StoryCorps, Scott (seen at left), explains how he invites people to his holiday dinner and how a tradition that began with him feeding a dozen people back in 1985 became a meal for close to a hundred diners.

Next, we hear from Herman Travis, another man going above and beyond to make sure people in his community have food. Herman, 55, lives in Holly Courts, a low-income housing complex in San Francisco. Every Tuesday he fills a shopping cart with groceries from a local food bank and makes home deliveries to his elderly and disabled neighbors.

Herman is especially busy around the holidays, sometimes making three or four trips in a single day. He came to StoryCorps with his neighbor, Robert Cochran (seen above right with Herman), who happens to be one of the recipients of Herman’s deliveries.

If you listen to our podcast regularly, you’ve heard us talk about the Great Thanksgiving Listen. This holiday season we are asking history and social studies teachers across the country to have their students use the StoryCorps app to record a conversation with a grandparent or another elder over the coming holiday weekend. Our dream is to have an entire generation of Americans honored in this way by having their stories and voices preserved at the Library of Congress.

photo_1445971842000Already many thousands of interviews have been recorded, and our final story proves that a great app interview can be conducted almost anywhere. Kara Masteller, 21, interviewed her grandfather, James Kennicott, 86, while sitting in the front seat of her 1994 Buick while parked outside a mall in Waterloo, Iowa (they took the selfie at left after their recording ended).

Their 16-minute long interview begins simply with Kara saying to her grandfather; “Tell me about yourself, where did you grow up?” and then they proceed to discuss his upbringing, work, Alzheimer’s disease, and their family.

It was precious time together that, according to Kara, led to more discussions between them about family and life after the recording stopped. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be about.

Click here for more information about the Great Thanksgiving Listen.

Click here to download the app.

Like the music in this episode? Support the artists:
“Sonstiges” by Podington Bear from the album Backbeat
“Send Off” by Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo from the album Prince Avalanche: An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Roberto Olivera and Debra Olivera

Roberto Olivera grew up in the 1960s just outside of Los Angeles, California.

As a teenager, he worked multiple jobs to support his family, but would come home to a physically and verbally abusive stepfather.

At StoryCorps, Roberto tells his wife, Debra, about how his mother helped him escape.

Originally aired August 7, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Wilson Matthews and Jeanne Yeatman

For more than a decade, Jeanne Yeatman and Wilson Matthews worked together as flight nurses, caring for patients being transported to hospitals on emergency response helicopters.

Wilson and Jeanne were called in to save a 13-year-old named Stephen Wright (pictured above), who had been severely injured in a bike accident.

They came to StoryCorps to talk about their most memorable flight, which took place in 2001.

Originally aired July 24, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photo of Stephen Wright courtesy of the Wright family.

John Gately and Sean Fitzpatrick

Eleven years ago, Sean Fitzpatrick was a high school junior in Spokane, Washington.

He had developed paranoid schizophrenia and was hearing voices—but he didn’t tell anyone.

One morning, Sean went to school with a gun and a plan: barricade himself in a classroom, pretend he had hostages, and force police to kill him.

Sean’s plan didn’t work—but at the end of the standoff he was shot in the face. He still has difficulty speaking.

John Gately of the Spokane Police Department was the officer assigned to negotiate with Sean.

They recently sat down at StoryCorps to remember that day in 2003. Sean now works to educate law enforcement on handling encounters with people in the midst of a mental health crisis.

Originally aired June 12, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Kevin Briggs and Kevin Berthia

In March of 2005, Kevin Berthia (pictured above right) was going through a tough time.

His daughter was born premature the year before and medical costs for her care climbed to nearly $250,000.

He couldn’t see a way out of debt, so he fell into a deep depression and decided to end his life at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 2.35.20 PMThat’s where he met retired California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs, who intervened and talked him down.

They spoke about that day at StoryCorps in San Francisco.

Originally aired March 6, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photo courtesy of Jon Storey, San Francisco Chronicle.