Jeannette Eason Interviews
Tough, strong-willed and big hearted, Jeannette Davis Eason was a truly remarkable woman and a major factor in Willie Eason’s success as a musician and businessman. She was born into a poor family in the rural central Florida town Longwood in 1937. Working as an itinerant farm laborer, as a girl she was the primary income producer for her family—her father was an abusive alcoholic. She married Willie Eason in 1956, and they had eight children. Dedicated to nurturing young people, Jeannette and Willie informally adopted twenty-four children and young people who were in need of a home. Together the Easons owned and operated three Fat Willie from Philly take-out barbeque restaurants simultaneously, owned and managed 280 rental units, and produced large concerts featuring top gospel stars in the 1950s and 60s. When Willie suffered from Alzheimer’s in his later years, Jeannette was a key source of information concerning her husband’s colorful life.
– Robert Stone
- RS 038-039 Jeannette Eason Interview 1/18/06 00:00
- RS 040-043 Jeannette Eason Interview 1/20/06 00:00
- RS 044 Jeannette Eason Interview 1/24/06 00:00
Interviewee: Jeannette Eason
Interviewer: Robert Stone
Date: 1/18/06, 1/20/06, 1/24/06
Location: On the telephone
Language: English
For the archive overview:
The Robert Stone Sacred Steel Archive
To learn more about Willie Eason and the Sacred Steel tradition, visit the Willie Eason interview page
These are interviews originally recorded for research purposes. They are presented here in their raw state, unedited except to remove some irrelevant sections and blank spaces. All rights to the interviews are reserved by the Arhoolie Foundation. Please do not use anything from this website without permission. info@arhoolie.org
Jeannette Eason Interview Transcripts:
Robert Stone:
Well, it just saves me from having to write everything down. I’m working on the book full time. I got till the end of March, and then I got to go back to work, so I’m trying to get this thing done.
Jeannette Eason:
Right. I can understand that.
Robert Stone:
Oh, man, it’s a long task, let me tell you. It’s a big job.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, I got the responsibility of Troman, with the cancer.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, how that’s going?
Jeannette Eason:
Well, he’s doing pretty good, but he went to that Martin Luther King show out there, and didn’t keep on the clothes I told him to put on. And he come in here with a high fever of 107. And they said, “It’s just a good thing his blood count was up high, because he could’ve died from it.” So he’s in the hospital now. They kept him in there.
Robert Stone:
Jeez, that’s tough, man.
Jeannette Eason:
They’re supposed to do the testing on him to see how close is it for them to do the operation. But you know how these kids are. No one listens.
Robert Stone:
Even us old folks-
Jeannette Eason:
He got no muscles to show, so I don’t know what in the heck you pull your sweater off for.
Robert Stone:
Even us old folks are hard-headed.
Jeannette Eason:
Yes, indeed.
Robert Stone:
Well, look, let’s talk about this Rosetta Tharpe thing. It was July 27th, 1959. Well, just start telling me what you remember about it, and I’ve got the flier. She sent me a copy of the flier by email. So I’ve got it sitting in front of me. So I can-
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, because she even asked me about The Staples Singers.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, right. Did they show?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-uh (negative). Basically, it wasn’t on that program. He had a local group there to open the program up, but Rosetta and him was the only two musicians on the floor with guitars. Even when they got on the boat … I don’t know if he told you this. I know I can recall it … the boat never sailed.
Jeannette Eason:
Between him and Loretta, the owner of the boat told Willie, “Well, I’m not going to just see you fail. I’ll go down and I’ll rock the boat,” because it wouldn’t go in gear, but he could rock it and make you think he riding on …
Robert Stone:
So why did the boat never sail?
Jeannette Eason:
Because there was something wrong with the motors. You know how, well, say, if your transmission is going up, and you try to make the car move?
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, that’s what happened, but it never moved. He just made it look like, from rocking the boat in the bottom of the boat, it made it look like the boat was sailing. I had her laughing this morning. She was laughing. She said, “Oh my God.”
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “No, it never left the shore.” What’s this guy? Peter Jackson? Not Peter. What’s his name? The one who said he wrote Roosevelt. Otis Jackson.
Robert Stone:
Otis Jackson.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, said, what he done, he come out the last minute, and was telling people after he discovered the boat didn’t go out, to get their money back, because the boat didn’t go out. But it was too late then, because everybody coming off the boat passed right by us and said, “Oh, Ms. Eason, we ain’t never had a ride like that before. Oh, that ride was so smooth.” But it never left the shore.
Jeannette Eason:
Him and Loretta with that Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do). My God, they played that song, I would say, about six times. Rosetta, she just turned it on. She would make her guitar talk, he’d make his talk, and the crowd was just going.
Robert Stone:
So that was a big number, Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. I told about, I even had the opportunity to have dinner with Loretta … with Rosetta and her mother, because she moved out of Philly from Master Street, and moved to New York.
Robert Stone:
Had dinner, this was later, not during this concert?
Jeannette Eason:
No, it was later, after they moved from Philly, because we moved to New York in ’60, and they moved up when she bought a home in New York.
Robert Stone:
You moved to New York in 1960?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), out of Philadelphia. I’m in here painting. My grandson walked in this morning and he looked up on the wall. He said, “Where’s Poppy?” I got all the pictures and everything down. I said, “He’s right over there. He’s laying down on the sofa.” “Where?”
Jeannette Eason:
I had her laughing. He had to go over there and pull the cover back to see if his pictures was over there. I told him, I said, “He is … ” Even he took him up to the grave site, and he leaned on the tomb, and was supposedly talking to his grandpa. “Poppy, I love you. I’m going to miss you. I know you in Heaven.” It brought tears to his eyes.
Robert Stone:
I’m sure. I’m sure. Gee whiz.
Jeannette Eason:
But other than that, because even she didn’t know that Rosetta had a accident. Willie was traveling with them coming south right out of, I think it was in between Savannah and Atlanta, where two of her musicians got killed in a auto wreck.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. This child, she went back, said, to the [inaudible 00:06:13], said, “Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. You gone far enough back now.” I had her laughing, Bob.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, I’m sure. Well, she said something about, “You were lively and lovely.” Do you happen to remember, It says here on the handle that there was a $500 prize to the best guitarist.
Jeannette Eason:
That was a gimmick. That was a gimmick.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, right.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Yep, I thought so.
Jeannette Eason:
The boat, back during then, I think, was running close to $1,500 just to rent it. It was a big ship. What they’d do, they go out down through the Delaware. Leave the port in Philly, and go down through the Delaware like that. That would never sail.
Robert Stone:
Well, how was the crowd? The crowd was all right with that?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, the crowd was beautiful. They didn’t even know it wasn’t moving. I guess, when you look at it and you get your mind to it … When I look at you and Julio on a program, you trying to get everything you can get, all the scenes, everything. And this is the way that boat ride was. I think it was in the newspaper also about the boat ride and all. They had a article on Willie and Rosetta. But to get them papers, it’s hard as a devil.
Robert Stone:
What newspaper would that have been?
Jeannette Eason:
Would have to be the colored paper, and it’s another there that he was in. It’s not the Daily News. It’s another one that him and Ronnie had when he … Philadelphia Tribune.
Robert Stone:
Philadelphia Tribune?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Okay. That was a Black paper, or that was a-
Jeannette Eason:
No, I think that was a white paper. Yeah. [crosstalk 00:08:27].
Robert Stone:
It says here that the Victory Baptist Church Reverend Woodward, pastor, presents Just What You’ve Been Waiting For. So he was the producer? Do you remember that?
Jeannette Eason:
He was one of the ministers, due to the fact you had to use a minister, and Willie didn’t want to include his self. So he got him to sponsor. But he didn’t pay any money. Willie gave him a donation, because he had a-
Robert Stone:
You cut off a minute there. Because he had what?
Jeannette Eason:
No, he had a pretty large church. Quite a few members. Willie played there quite a few … I don’t know why the phone- now I’m on it, and they want to keep bumping, bumping.
Robert Stone:
It says here that the North Philadelphia Juniors and the Holy Wonders, I guess they were opening acts, huh?
Jeannette Eason:
Right, yeah. That’s the one Willie almost put in the Delaware River.
Robert Stone:
Why’s that?
Jeannette Eason:
The Holy Wond- [laughing]. Because they wanted to come out and demand that he was supposed to give them $250 just for opening up the program. It was about seven of them, and by the time, I had my pocketbook and the .45, and I’m heading towards the Cadillac on the dock.
Jeannette Eason:
And they going to rush up to Willie, and oh, he want to hit him, and knock him down, and all. Willie says, “Look, I didn’t promise you no money. I’ve tried to get you to venture out, and you was on the program. It’s true.” He said, “But I told you, my expenses was too much, that I had no money. But I’m letting you coming and do the thing to let people know who you are.”
Robert Stone:
Right, publicity, yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I went on to the car. When they looked up, they looked at that .45. I said, “You hit him, you going to be in the river.” Before I could get that out, Willie hauled off and hit the leader. I mean, made the change come out of his pocket.
Jeannette Eason:
And the other guy’s all, “Oh, man. We’ll get you. We’ll get you.” They tried to follow us to … We was living on 6th Street at the time. Yeah, Norris and, what is it? 1938 North 6th Street. Yeah, we were living there. They tried to follow us a couple of blocks, but they gave up.
Robert Stone:
Where were you living? 19 …
Jeannette Eason:
1938 North 6th Street, right out of Norris Germantown Town Avenue. In that area. Henry lived right at 806 right around the corner from us on Norris. Well, that was the end of that. But he was saying, because they had The Staples Singers, I told him, “No, The Staples Singers would’ve known that.”
Robert Stone:
They never showed, huh?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, they never showed up.
Robert Stone:
So who fronted the money for this event? Who produced it?
Jeannette Eason:
For the boat?
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Willie.
Robert Stone:
Willie did?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Now, I got a call coming in, but I can’t take it while I’m on this tape recorder, so we’ll just keep going.
Jeannette Eason:
No, Willie done [inaudible 00:11:58] and selling tickets with this promotion like that.
Robert Stone:
I see that this copy, it says it was printed by the Keystone Poster Printing Company.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s it. That’s it.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, I sure wish I could find something on them, because apparently they went out of business long ago.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a shame. Even him and I, even before he got sick, we tried to contact them and all, but we never could contact them.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, I can’t find any trace of them really. In fact, there is a company called the Keystone Ink Company, but it’s not related. I talked to somebody there today. It’s right in Philly, but they said there was no connection. They’d heard of that company, but they didn’t know anything about it.
Jeannette Eason:
Isn’t that something?
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Evidently, they went out of business, because they made some of the most beautiful flier cards.
Robert Stone:
Now, do you remember how late you used them? I mean, if I was to try and track them down, do you remember what was maybe about the last time you used those guys? Did you use them after you moved to New York?
Jeannette Eason:
Okay, well, you would have to go back to ’59, because the last promotion he made, yeah, it was in ’59, because he got rid of the gas station, and he promoted … Oh, God. Oh, yeah, it could’ve been in ’60 … Oh, yes, it was around ’60, because in ’59, he took The Davis Sisters … Right?
Jeannette Eason:
It was coming up to the spring of ’60, and he got The Davis Sisters, plus two groups of The Blind Boys, and took them into DuSable High School, in Chicago.
Robert Stone:
So that was in the spring of 1960?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, from there, we went to Milwaukee with The Davis Sisters. But that was the last one, because the reason I’m so positive about it, is because Henry walked into the house, and he seen all these flier cards. And he wanted to know from Willie, “How you going to promote a program in Chicago, and you got all these cards here?”
Jeannette Eason:
So Willie told him, he said, “No, I’m taking a trip out there, and I’ll get my cards put up.” He always had help by some of his tenants that was out there. It would have to be ’60.
Robert Stone:
So what are you saying … 1960 was the last that you used Keystone?
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
It was the last concert he produced? Or was it?
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
Was it the last concert he produced?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, out in that area.
Robert Stone:
But, I mean, he didn’t produce any more concerts anymore after that?
Jeannette Eason:
No. No, because he got stuck on that with him. He said, “Never. No more.”
Robert Stone:
Okay. Yeah, right, quit while you’re not losing too bad.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I mean, The Davis Sisters, they was heavy drinkers. Oh my God, the money … The man, he took the last 13 hours out the house buying food, and come to find out they got drunk.
Robert Stone:
After DuSable High School in Chicago, then you went on to Milwaukee?
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Do you remember the venue there? What the hall was that you used?
Jeannette Eason:
No, it really wasn’t a large church. It was medium size.
Robert Stone:
So it was a church?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. The Davis Sisters … I don’t know, this guy that knew J.B. Cobbs, or something, out of Chicago, and Maceo Woods, they knew this minister. So he took them up there perform. Archie Brownlee and Clarence had to be in Florida at the same time. So they just checked out, and they went on come back down to Florida.
Robert Stone:
So they didn’t go to Milwaukee?
Jeannette Eason:
No.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Now, tell me about the gas station.
Jeannette Eason:
It was right down on the corner of Norris and 6th Street. He went in it with his brother, Henry. Willie knew quite a bit about cars and things like that, and he was trying to show him how he could have a good business there with a mechanic and all.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, this is terrible. Willie would order the gas, but Henry would go over and snatch the money, and go to Ida’s and flash it. Willie said, “No, this aint working.”
Robert Stone:
Ida’s was a restaurant?
Jeannette Eason:
Right, that was they sister. After Willie had got this mechanic to go there and start putting in the alternators and different things like that, Henry still didn’t want to do nothing. So Willie said, “Uh-uh (negative).”
Jeannette Eason:
He said, “I’m giving it up.” So when he gave it up, then the gas station had to close down, because Henry, he was running with quite a few women at the time, and messing up. So he just left it. He gave it him. He said, “You can have it,” and walked out.
Robert Stone:
When was that? When you all left Philly?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Yeah, because he had told him, “Come on over.” When he heard that we was coming to Philly, “Come on, we can get in business together,” and all. And he tried. Willie took him down alongside there, and let him play the guitar down there with him, right there on … Oh, what the name of that street where he sung at in Philly? God, darn, I can’t think. Oh, it’s a crisscross street coming out of [inaudible 00:18:43] there as you come across the bridge. But then what Henry would do, Henry would get in his spot before Willie could get there. Willie got tired of it. He said, “No, no, no, no. I’m getting out of here. No.”
Robert Stone:
His own brother, huh?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Messing him up.
Jeannette Eason:
We had two houses and we sold both of the houses and the farm, because we had a farm at that particular time down in Dorothy, New Jersey.
Robert Stone:
Down in where?
Jeannette Eason:
Dorothy, New Jersey, right off of Vineland.
Robert Stone:
Dorothy?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative). I had a five-acre eight-room house, chicken houses. Everything was on it. Matter of fact, we raised vegetables there for two years, but I got tired of farming. I’ve been in that all my life. I told him, we got to give that up, because I was transporting from Dorothy all the way up to the Lawnside, because I had a concession stand there.
Jeannette Eason:
And Willie in New York running the restaurant. So I told him, “Nope, we’ll do is just sell it, and I’m going up to New York.” It was too much.
Robert Stone:
It’s hard to keep up with you, man. All these different businesses you had going on. You’re wearing me out just talking about it.
Jeannette Eason:
Everybody wondering now, they say, where did I get all my talent from. I said, “By listening, looking, and learning,” because I’ve done all my cement work here. A guy asked me the other day. He said, “What are you doing? Talking about, you picking up 100 pounds of cement.”
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “I did not say I pick up 100 pounds of cement. I said I mix 100 pounds of cement.” He was about 84 years old, and I was up at Cox Lumber. He said, “Well, how do you get it, and how do you get it mixed up?” I said, “It’s a catch to everything in life. You see where you can’t do it. No, it’s not impossible. You can do it.” I told him, I said, “What I do is, I cut the 100-pound bag in half, so I got 50 pounds on one side and 50 pounds on the other.” He said, “You son of a gun.” I got this puppy and it likes to dig, so I just put down cement to keep him from digging. Those was the good days when it come too, because she even asked me about The Dixie Hummingbirds, and did Willie know them, and all. I told her, “Yes, indeed. Very close friends.” Talk to all of them.
Robert Stone:
Now, where was Ida’s restaurant? Remember where-
Jeannette Eason:
During the time, it was 1903 Columbia Avenue. But now, they’ll name it to find somebody they named that. But even if you say 1903 Columbia Avenue, everybody know that was Ida’s restaurant. Oh, I got it Cecil B. Moore. That’s the address of it now. That’s the street name, Cecil B. Moore.
Robert Stone:
Cecil B. Moore?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Avenue. I think that was one of the congressmen that went to Washington or something. It had something to do with it. It could’ve been from Temple University. They bought all that land in there.
Robert Stone:
So when did that close down, do you remember?
Jeannette Eason:
When Willie lost all his money. Let’s see, from-
Robert Stone:
So Willie was invested in that?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, went up and done all the construction. She had two buildings, but she had one building the city kept on, but there was rats on the grill and everything. His sister, Addie, made the sweet potato pies. Earline worked in there, making the cakes and all. And it was filthy.
Jeannette Eason:
She couldn’t get out of it. She kept getting heavy fines. So we had come here in ’86. So starting in ’87 through till Michael got killed … What was that? In 1990 … Willie was up there. All my equipment I had down here in the restaurant, he took all of it north to that restaurant. [crosstalk 00:23:26] tables, the barbecue pit.
Jeannette Eason:
Everything went up there, because I seen I wasn’t going to make no money here with that barbecue place in the hotel, and I closed it out.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean, hotel?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, Lord.
Robert Stone:
You had a hotel in St. Pete?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
This is the first I’ve heard of that.
Jeannette Eason:
On 34th Street. 2330 34th Street South. One of the biggest gimmicks Marie Paul ever made.
Robert Stone:
What did you say?
Jeannette Eason:
I said that was one of the biggest gimmicks that Marie Paul, the real estate woman, ever did. They wanted $250,000 for the hotel. Willie put down $150K, and they were saying it was running $45,000 or something like that, a year. I can’t remember now whether it was monthly or a year.
Jeannette Eason:
It was 13 units there. Even the little office, they never even put in a sewer line. The toilet would run out in the bus stop. They was raising sweet potatoes there to cover it. You may think I’m lying, but this is the truth.
Robert Stone:
What was the name of the hotel?
Jeannette Eason:
Sunshine Skyway Motel.
Robert Stone:
So I know that Willie used to say, in his later years, that he lost a bunch of money. Was that it?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, yeah.
Robert Stone:
That was the big one?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
That was the big one.
Jeannette Eason:
See, not only did he make … Well, him and Junior came down, and I had told him, and I said, “Bill, before you invest anything, let’s wait until we get to Florida, and with the boys, maybe you could open up a carwash or a laundry mat, or something like that. Don’t take these people word.”
Jeannette Eason:
But they went and they looked at it, and they thought it was gorgeous and all. I had to remodel every room in there. Bedspreads, curtains, everything, I made by hand. We spent, what? Close to $86,000 painting it, decorating it back over, and trying to clean it up.
Jeannette Eason:
Loretta was in on that deal. She was talking to me last week, say, “Ma, I never felt so bad in all my life,” because the commission on it for the sales was $14,000 or something like that, and they didn’t even want to give her to her [inaudible 00:26:02] because she was helping them sell.
Jeannette Eason:
And I told her, I said, “No, you need to get your real estate license.” And that’s how she lost her business, trying to deal with people like that, right there in Tampa. She had a beautiful business going on. She had to lose it, her townhouse and all.
Jeannette Eason:
After he did that, I was in there from September. I took over September the 16th, and I ran it till January. I hadn’t cleared $150 over the expense of the hotel.
Robert Stone:
What year was that?
Jeannette Eason:
That was ’87.
Robert Stone:
’87.
Jeannette Eason:
’86.
Robert Stone:
So you got out of that.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, yeah. The lawyer wanted to know, said … And Marie Paul, they came, they had a arbitrator and everybody. Had me downtown there, and they wanted to know, how soon could I give them the hotel? I told my lawyer, I said, “15 minutes.” “What do you mean, 15 minutes?” I said, “15 minutes.”
Jeannette Eason:
So when I got into arbitration, they wanted me to talk because I was the one running it more than Willie being out up in Philly and all. And they wanted to know, what did I make? I didn’t make nothing. I didn’t even get paid. So the arbitrator asked me, said, “Well, Ms. Eason, Marie Paul husband is here.
Jeannette Eason:
“Would you give him a chance to run the hotel, put somebody in it, and leave your deposit up for your lights?” Well, I must be a fool. $1,275, I’m going to put in somebody else hands. I dropped the keys on the table, Bob, and I told them, I said, “Now, concerning the lights, I got my deposit back from the lights and the water yesterday.”
Jeannette Eason:
And they looked at me like I was crazy. Walked out. My lawyer, he just couldn’t believe it. He had opportunity … I think he was working for them. He had a opportunity to take let them put somebody in there, and you’d still be making money. If I didn’t make none at all this time, how am I make it now if you take over? So I come out of it.
Robert Stone:
Right, just be worse.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s one reason why we sold the house. We had a beautiful home when we moved here at 6960 4th Street South down on the water. We didn’t only sell the home, no-
Robert Stone:
69 64th Street?
Jeannette Eason:
6960 4th Street South.
Robert Stone:
Oh, 6960.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). We had a 22-foot boat we brought all the way down, a Grady White, from Cape Cod, New Jersey, down here. And then, we built a dock out on it. It you’re not making no money, and you got payments for $1,300 a month, what do you do?
Jeannette Eason:
So what’s that army guy that retreats? And I told him, I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “I have always had the foresight. God gave me the foresight of what could happen in the future.” And I told Willie, I said, “You know what? We’re doing something stupid.”
Jeannette Eason:
He said, “What is that, Jean?” I said, “Our kids is working, it’s true, but $1,300 a month just for a mortgage … ” It was $139,000, and he financed $100K. $39,000, he put on the home because he put that $150K on the motel, because we sold, what was it? Three properties up there in New York.
Jeannette Eason:
I told him, I said, “No, you know what? We sell the house.” So we went with Buy Owner, and Buy Owner was charging us $700 for it to go on TV for that Sunday. And this was the 26th day of November. Willie had his little sign on front, and a man from Wisconsin come and put the sign up, and walked in the house, and said, “I want to buy the house.” So we sold it.
Jeannette Eason:
And then, that’s when I come up here. I moved everything out and put it in the hotel. We come up and we found this home, which was $80,000. I can take care of, with just with me working. I didn’t have to have Willie.
Robert Stone:
Right. Hey, hang on a second. I got to change tapes. Hang on. Okay, I’m back.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, so what we done, we just reverse, and did like Mike Harper. That’s the name. Made a retreat and came up here. But he never got nothing away from Philadelphia from all that work he done, contractor, new roof, studs, everything put in. He really had the place decorated.
Robert Stone:
You mean, Ida’s?
Jeannette Eason:
Yep. But the daughter was very greedy, and she’s so greedy, she even cut her sister out of the restaurant, when the mother left it to both of them.
Robert Stone:
Wow. Well, that’s interesting. I might need to talk to from time to time as I’m finishing things up here, but I did want to get the store on that Rosetta Tharpe cruise, so I think I got it. Yeah, I see that you sold tickets from Ida’s restaurant and other places.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, see, she was in with Ronnie Williams. And every Easter, they do that Easter parade. The woman would get the most beautiful outfit and dresses and all, and that’s what Ida would do. And they would give her the contest money for it.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean? What part did Ida play in it?
Jeannette Eason:
Ida just played the part when started. What she done, she would dress up, and I guess other women would be dressed too. But then, they had this gimmick where you put your hand over your head and you clap, and you pick the people, but a lot of times, Ronnie had people in there that picked Ida. So Ida was in his corner always. She was the highest-selling ticket booth in Philadelphia.
Robert Stone:
Now, was this strictly a Black event, you’re talking about?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, it’s the Met, Easter, they would have it there every time. That’s how he and Willie got into the problem, because we come from Chicago, and Willie threw his program Palm Sunday. Ronnie had his Easter Sunday.
Robert Stone:
I see. Now, when did you move from Chicago to Philly?
Jeannette Eason:
I think it was 1959. Yeah, it had to be because Ada was born in ’59.
Robert Stone:
I’m just writing that down. So you didn’t stay there very long. Then, you moved to New York in 1960.
Jeannette Eason:
Right, yep. He moved. I didn’t move. I was out on that farm.
Robert Stone:
You stayed out in-
Jeannette Eason:
On the farm with my adopted kids and my three girls. I had five girls. It’s so funny. What stopped me, I would work until 4:00 in the morning. I got these kids in the car, and I struck out, went through Vineland. I was 13 miles out of Vineland, and a tractor trailer that hauled cows or something was across the road.
Jeannette Eason:
I’m in a ’51 Oldsmobile station wagon, and this guy was across the road and waving for me to stop. I wouldn’t stop, Bob. I ran behind the back of the trailer. The man ran to the front. And I called Willie. I said, “I got to leave here.” He said, “What’s wrong?”
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “Oh, no, I almost got killed last night, and my girls.” That was the end of the farm, because traveling that time of night, even, I had police officers that would make sure that I got out to, I think it’s Black Horse Turnpike, somewhere in there.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, Black Horse Pike.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, out of Lawnside. They would trail me out. A few hard years in there, but thank God we made it.
Robert Stone:
So you were trying to make money farming, huh?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Now, this girl this morning, I told her, I said, “No,” I said, “with him, he was always a go-getter, and I worked with him every step of the way.” Oh, she was talking about … I told her about … She was asking, did I have a photo of Rosetta. I told her, “No.” Rosetta.
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “I had one, but I even had the book that was wrote about her.” And she even mentioned Willie in that book. I said, “But it’s lost in the fire.” We had a fire. The pictures, the mother’s pictures, all that stuff, I just lost it.
Jeannette Eason:
She was saying, “Well, you know anybody would have one?” I thought of Sherry DuPree. I said, “Now, listen, do me a favor.” She was laughing. She said, “What is it?” “If you call Sherry DuPree, just don’t mention nothing about Bob Stone.”
Robert Stone:
Why’s that?
Jeannette Eason:
She said, “Why? Why?” I said, “Because Sherry got kind of angry because I told Bob Stone he could write his story on Willie, and she wanted to do it, her and her husband.” Sherry hasn’t called me since then, Bob.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
No. And you know how long you’ve been on the book. I’ve sent cards to her and everything. I never got a card back. I’ve called the college, and her voice come on. She’s not there right now, but she would give a call. She never gave me a-
Robert Stone:
Never call back, huh?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-mm (negative).
Robert Stone:
Well, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that. She’s been a little bit cold towards me. Not entirely, but I have seen her and interacted with her since then.
Jeannette Eason:
Right, but even like I told the girl, I said, “I’m this way. I’m not going to double cross nobody.” See, Sherry, whatever she did, she did it because she’s a Liberian, you know what I’m saying? She knew you as a friend. How am I going to cut cross and let her do something that you struggle and work for?
Jeannette Eason:
I told the girl about all the pictures you took here and how many trips you made down here. The girl said, “No,” said, “Ms. Eason, you are honest.” She said, “Believe me, you are honest.” I said, “No, I don’t care how long it take Bob to write it, I gave him permission to take it through. And Willie gave him permission.”
Jeannette Eason:
So she said, “Wow. So I won’t mention Bob.” I said, “You better not,” because I know she got all those albums there with practically everybody picture in it from way back. Some of the old-time singers.
Robert Stone:
You mean, Sherry?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, but of course, that stuff, she got … Actually, I think she’s turned over a lot of her archives to Washington D.C. But almost all of her stuff, she got from somebody else, you know what I mean? Yeah, I don’t know what she ever had about Rosetta Tharpe.
Robert Stone:
But I got an idea that she might not have had anything that this woman, Gale, wasn’t already aware of. She’s a professor of English at the George Washington University there.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, she was telling me. She said, I’m only two miles from Bush.” I said, “Well, go by there and say, ‘Hello,’ to him.” She just laughed and said, “You’re too much.” I said, “Don’t get too close now.” She was so pleasant over the phone.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, very. We talked for a little while too, before she called you.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, she told me, Bob Stone had told her, give me a call.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, right. I told her to mention my name.
Jeannette Eason:
Like I told her, I gave all the information that I could give her, and even some that she didn’t know about. During that time, they was coming down right after he did that promotion with Franklin. What’s that’s girl’s name?
Robert Stone:
Aretha?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. When she had Frank down there when he was preaching, The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest. He was the first one in Atlanta that gave that program, and-
Robert Stone:
You mean, her father, C. L. Franklin?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. And then, he got the same hotel, whatever it was, hold there for Rosetta and her group to come down from Philly.
Robert Stone:
To Atlanta?
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
When was that?
Jeannette Eason:
Right after he had C. L. Franklin.
Robert Stone:
But when was that, I mean?
Jeannette Eason:
Ooh, God, now.
Robert Stone:
Was that before this thing on the boat?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah, way before then, because C. L. Franklin … Aretha was just a young girl at that time. She wasn’t singing or nothing. But he was mostly preaching at that time all through Baltimore and all.
Robert Stone:
So was Rosetta based out of Philly?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Master Street in Philly. I can’t remember the address.
Robert Stone:
Master Street?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. That’s on the north side of Philly, going east. Running east to west, or something like that, I think it is.
Robert Stone:
Well, as usual, you’ve given me a lot of information.
Jeannette Eason:
I gave you more than what you thought you needed.
Robert Stone:
More than I can handle, for the most part. But I never y’all had that hotel in St. Pete.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, yeah.
Robert Stone:
Willie just used to say, “I made some … I lost some money in my later years.”
Jeannette Eason:
He was the type of man, he wouldn’t concentrate on it. He knew he had lost it, and he felt so bad because a lot of times, I would tell him, “No.” But then I said, “Go ahead. Do what you want to do.” He was thinking he was making a good investment and all, and he didn’t …
Jeannette Eason:
But I never threw that in his face about what he lost or nothing like that, because we worked together as a team, and you couldn’t ask for nothing no better than that. Even if I had mad a bad investment, he could’ve done the same thing to me, but I didn’t bring it up.
Jeannette Eason:
The only ones brought it up was my daughter, Linda and I told her, “Shut up.” Right at that hotel, she come over and she had a nasty attitude. Right now, I done told her, “Don’t call me at all,” because she asked my sister during the funeral, who was her mother.
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “With all the education this girl got, she going to ask you who were her mother?” She can go on the website, go get your birth certificate. Don’t be a fool and make somebody else think, oh, I ran out on Willie, and she got another … either she was adopted, or I took somebody’s child. No, no, no, no, no.
Jeannette Eason:
So she got mad because she tried to ruin my credit here when I tried to get a car after Willie died, and go put my name down as copayment. And the guy called me and tells me, I better have $789 over there by 1:30. When he spoke at first, “Jeannette Eason.” I said, “Who is this?” “This is DriveTime calling Mr. so-and-so.” I said, “Okay, Mr. so-and-so, let me tell you something, I am Mrs., and don’t you forget it, Jeannette Eason. I didn’t give you information to give you the privilege of calling me Jeannette. I’m not a child.” That man apologized through the whole conversation. “Well, Ms. Eason, I will straighten this out. So the company from headquarters called me and told me, “No, you won’t get another call from that company,” because the girl ain’t paying the payments. But she got me down as copayment. And they going to tell me, I got to pay. I said, “No, it was forgery.” It brought my credit from 9.8, or something like that, down to 500. Two repossessed cars plus a student loan for her daughter. The daughter was named after me, so they put all of this on my report, saying this was my stuff.
Jeannette Eason:
And I told them, “I never had a repossession of no cars. I can give you ever car dealer we’ve dealt with in every state.”
Robert Stone:
I just want to go over, almost year by year of using this thing that Sherry DuPree wrote up as sort of a guideline. I know there’s a lot of inaccuracies in it, here and there. I mean, she did what she could at the time. I’m talking about that fold up thing with a picture of Willie on the front.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. So let’s see-
Jeannette Eason:
Do you have that in front of you?
Robert Stone:
Yes. Right.
Jeannette Eason:
And some of the things, even… She said, when we left out of Chicago, we moved to Philly, but then she- [crosstalk]
Robert Stone:
Right, exactly. There’s a lot of things like that.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
So, I just wanted to go over them. Okay. There was 18 children. Is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yes, in Willie’s family.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Okay. And you know that it was in 1930, that he was crushed by that elevator?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh…
Robert Stone:
At the laundry in Philadelphia, or…
Jeannette Eason:
He was only 11 years old, so.
Robert Stone:
He was 11. Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
She says here he was nine.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, around nine.
Robert Stone:
Okay. From nine to 11 years old when crushed. Okay. And I remember that it was his aunt Lovey Stakely who turned her plate over and fasted and prayed for him.
Jeannette Eason:
Right. And his mother, Addie Easton.
Robert Stone:
She also fasted?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And that’s when he also started playing the piano too, is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. As he got home… Because he stayed in the hospital. I don’t know whether it was close to a year, because they had him in a cast and all. He couldn’t walk.
Robert Stone:
Oh, really?
Jeannette Eason:
And once he got home and got better, that’s when he went and started fumbling with Troman’s guitar.
Robert Stone:
Okay. So, he stayed in the hospital?
Jeannette Eason:
Close to a year.
Robert Stone:
Wow.
Robert Stone:
They wouldn’t do that anymore. No, they don’t keep people that long.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, I won’t tell you now, I’ll wait ’til you get through.
Robert Stone:
Go ahead.
Jeannette Eason:
No, I got a $44,000 on Troman, already.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
For the cancer.
Robert Stone:
I hear that. Yeah. I know and it’s incredible. Okay. So, it says here at 12 years old, he started playing in church.
Jeannette Eason:
Right. It’s on that one harmony strings.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Now, do you know where that’s church was?
Jeannette Eason:
No, but it is. Now, you’ve got two of them, but they broke up so bad. One was on Columbia Avenue, the Pillar Ground of Truth on Columbia Avenue. And then they have one at 58th and Thompson. That’s a different pastor, but I do know the one on… It’s at Cecil B Moore now.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
On that corner, there. I think its around 26th, or 25th street. That was Bishop Lockley’s Church.
Robert Stone:
Okay. 20… Okay. Bishop Lockley’s Church. So, that’s where he went right, Bishop Lockley?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Okay. And… Now, it says here that he played his Hawaiian guitar at the state of Georgia church assembly meeting in 1934. Is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
State of Georgia?
Robert Stone:
It doesn’t…
Jeannette Eason:
Where would that be at? They didn’t say the town, or nothing? She didn’t say the town? Oh, go back. No, no, no, no. Okay. Bishop Stakely. Americus, Georgia.
Robert Stone:
So…
Jeannette Eason:
And he even continued to do that way up when she was in the 80s… Well, even before the 80s. I know we went through and all way back, 1972.
Robert Stone:
That was Lovey Stakely?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Bishop Lovey Stakely.
Jeannette Eason:
He’d go down every year and play that for her.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
He would play there every year? Until how late?
Jeannette Eason:
All the way up, until she went into the nursing home. He still went to the nursing home and played, but it wasn’t a church.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
When did she pass? Was it ’96?
Robert Stone:
Well, according to Sherry DuPree’s thing, she says 1993. She died at age 106.
Jeannette Eason:
It could have been ’93. I won’t dispute that.
Robert Stone:
Right. So…
Jeannette Eason:
But I know she was 106 years old.
Robert Stone:
Okay. But he went down there year after year. So, you think it was as early as 1934 he went down there? Gosh he was pretty… He was only 12, or 13 years old then.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, I don’t know.
Robert Stone:
You don’t know, you weren’t around-
Jeannette Eason:
I know that’s where he went, once he got older.
Robert Stone:
Well, let me ask you this, because I might get up there. Are there relatives around that area in Ellaville and all that, that I could see if I went up there? Or folks that I could talk to on the phone, maybe?
Jeannette Eason:
The only one I can think of, I think you got him in that tape. I think you contacted him and he gave you a picture of Willie. Oh, what is his name? Oh, he’s in Georgia there. He even stayed with him.
Robert Stone:
Willie stayed with him?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Are you talking about Baldwin.
Jeannette Eason:
Baldwin.
Robert Stone:
I’ve never talked to him.
Jeannette Eason:
No?
Robert Stone:
No. But I need to talk to…
Jeannette Eason:
Because I don’t know of no one else there. Not even the members that could tell you that, because most of the old members was died out.
Robert Stone:
Right now, Bishop Baldwin’s over in Macon though.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
And he was the one that took Willie in as a young boy and he stayed at his house and all. All of them was on Bishop Lockley.
Robert Stone:
Right. Okay. If we don’t get this done this time, I’ll call back and we’ll get… But I want to go…
Jeannette Eason:
No, go ahead.
Robert Stone:
… over every little thing. So, what I’m saying, when you got to go, just let me know, if we’re not done.
Jeannette Eason:
I ain’t doing nothing, but hanging Willie up on the wall.
Robert Stone:
I know, but you got to an appointment you got to go through in a while. Okay. We’ve covered his high school thing. We’ve covered when he left to go play with Lockley. I got that information from the school records. Now, do we know how many trips he made with Lockley? Was it just a one trip?
Jeannette Eason:
No, no. They did that every year for the assembly.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Do you mean down to Florida? I’m talking about with the Gospel Feast Party?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Every year.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. But every year for how long?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh…
Robert Stone:
Because it wasn’t long.
Jeannette Eason:
It was until a Lockley died and he was in Daytona. They had a big church. He had one there and… No, that was Jewell’s church there in Deerfield, with the boy and the girl singing, the sister and brother. Now…
Robert Stone:
See I’m confused. Okay…
Jeannette Eason:
He had one in Fort Lauderdale.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Well, wait a minute. Let’s just… Because this is a confusing point for me. We know that he went with Lockley in 1939 when his mom withdrew him from school.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
We know that… We’re quite sure of that. But he soon became dissatisfied, because he wasn’t getting any money. And I always thought that Willie went on his own after that. Did he continue to go with Lockley, years after that, or not, or what?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. He continued to go with him, but just like you say, he learned that traveling with him, he couldn’t succeed, because he was trying to buy his first home at the age of 21.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Right.
Jeannette Eason:
With Alyce.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
And he started, I guess… Well, he started traveling, going around to all the churches and things like that. And Bishop Lockley said well, he was going to put him out the church because…
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
… he’s not in his church. So, it would be around the age of 22 when he bought his home. Because…
Robert Stone:
Right. I’ve got that.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s when he lost the…
Robert Stone:
On Flora Street, yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
… the coffee girl car, because he told him he had the money to pay for his car note. But Lockley told him to give it to him and God would bless him. And I think that was one of the biggest fights they had. And Willie gave it to him and then repossession come along and took the car. And he was going with this lady, at that particular time, I can’t think of her name. But Willie went there and knocked on the door and he told him, he said, no, he couldn’t help him. He couldn’t give him no money to get the car back. But I don’t know, it looked like God just had somebody in the picture. Police officer asked about coffee gal. That was what they was calling it. And all he told him-
Robert Stone:
Wait a minute. Coffee gal?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s what they named it.
Robert Stone:
The car?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And Willie was walking with his head hung and the police officer knew him, had heard him saying on the streets there. And he asked him, “Willie, what’s wrong?” And Willie told him that his car was repossessed. He had the money, but he paid the Bishop. So, he told him, he said, “No, you come, go with me.” And he took him to… Finance… Oh my goodness. Household Finance, was the place he took him and they wanted to know what did he owe on the car. He said, $800. And they gave Willie the $800. This way he could repossess his own car and get it back. But the police officer-
Robert Stone:
And where was this happening?
Jeannette Eason:
That was in Philadelphia. And then when he drove up [crosstalk 00:11:39] Bishop-
Robert Stone:
And when was this then?
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
When would this have been?
Jeannette Eason:
In the year, if he was 22, 23.
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Do the math.
Robert Stone:
No, that’s okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. And the worst part about it, he thought Bishop Lockley was going to be happy that he retrieved the car. And he walked up and Bishop Lockley actually cursed. He said, “Well, I’d be damned.” And I think that’s when he really just left him. But even at that, Willie was so humble. I used to get him up in Burlington there. Henry would go up and then Henry, his brother, and part of the family followed him and Willie would go right on up there and play. That’s right. It’s more like he was forgiving, he couldn’t think of the past.
Robert Stone:
So, what you’re saying, is that… Okay. Willie withdraws from high school in 1939 in January, goes down probably, not too long after new years, to go South with Lockley. That was his first time that we know of.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
And then…
Jeannette Eason:
Don’t forget he was what, 15? So, even if…
Robert Stone:
No, he was 18, or 17.
Jeannette Eason:
18 when he started traveling?
Robert Stone:
17, yeah. Well, first of all, you got to remember, he thought he was born in 1922.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah. Okay.
Robert Stone:
But in January 1939, his birthday was in June, right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, June.
Robert Stone:
So, he would have thought that he was…
Jeannette Eason:
June of ’21.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, but he thought he was born in 22, for all those years.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
So, back then, see, he thought he was 15, because he hadn’t turned… Well, he thought he was 16, he hadn’t turned 17 yet.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
So, we’re talking about people’s memories. He’s close enough-
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
That’s why we like to get things like the school documents, because they set the record straight.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
But what I’m getting at is that, what I always understood, is that he got fed up with this bologna right away, not getting paid.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
And then he only went once, or twice on that long trip with Lockley. But now I’m hearing, maybe he went several times for… Or I don’t know, did he maybe just go for part of the trip, or… You know what I mean?
Jeannette Eason:
I think what happened there, even though he came down with him, because Willie was not going to disobey his parents, you know?
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
And yeah, he probably came downstate for two, or three years, but he’s not getting no money.
Robert Stone:
For that long, huh? But you’re just guessing?
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
Are you…
Jeannette Eason:
No, because I’m going to tell you something else.
Robert Stone:
What’s that?
Jeannette Eason:
After that, he started chauffeuring for Bishop Jewell, from Nashville.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
And… What is the other one’s name? He was in…
Robert Stone:
Keith?
Jeannette Eason:
Who?
Robert Stone:
Keith.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Bishop Keith. And evidently, because from what he’s saying, he would be in Miami and come all the way back to Philadelphia, or take them to New York and turn around and go right back. So, he did chauffeur for two of the bishops, after he came out of the church.
Robert Stone:
He chauffeured for both Jewell and Keith.
Jeannette Eason:
And Keith.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Well that-
Jeannette Eason:
Which one… The boy, Henry he taught, which one was that? Was that on the beef…
Robert Stone:
Henry?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative). The two brothers…
Robert Stone:
Henry Harrison?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Was that Jewell, or Keith?
Robert Stone:
Henry Harrison… I get confused. I believe he was Keith…
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
… all the time. Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
No, it was Lorenzo that went to the Jewell Dominion, but the rest of his family were Keith Dominion. Lorenzo married into the Jewell family. So, was it Keith… So, he chauffeured for both, or you think just the one?
Jeannette Eason:
No, drove for both of them.
Robert Stone:
Jewell and Keith?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, and another thing, remember… Hmm… Now, I don’t know how old he was, but they gave him a church there in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Robert Stone:
Well, that’s…
Jeannette Eason:
The pastor that didn’t last too long.
Robert Stone:
He was a pastor in Knoxville?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
He did pastor in Knoxville. Do you know when that would have been?
Jeannette Eason:
No, not the year.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Okay. Actually, Mary Linzy has a little bit of memory about that. Yeah. Now, according to Sherry DuPree’s thing, which again, as we know there’s a lot of inaccuracies, that he and his sister Earline, were both ordained bishops by L.C. [J.R.] Lockley.
Jeannette Eason:
No, not bishops.
Robert Stone:
No. Or no, no, excuse me. They were ordained by Bishop Lockley and…
Jeannette Eason:
By Lockley, yeah.
Robert Stone:
… Bishop Nelson, but it wasn’t L.C. Lockley, it’s J.R. Lockley.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
And so, Nelson and Lockley, both ordained them. But then she goes on to say, Willie Eason never pastored a church, his sister pastored in Philadelphia. Now, Earline she’s deceased?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Earline changed to another church, because he was doing the same thing, even when she’s married to her husband.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Can you…
Jeannette Eason:
He got to take a whole paycheck to Bishop Lockley.
Robert Stone:
Hang on a second.
Jeannette Eason:
I don’t remember… I know it was mother Bright, that had her own church. Then Earline stopped going to there… God… I think, right after Willie and I got married, she started going there. And matter of fact, the boy Ricky, that played the piano down here, was the one that comes from Tennessee. I flew him in.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Mother Bright is the one that raised him.
Robert Stone:
Mother Bright?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And he even carries their name, Ricky Bright. But that’s where Earline was.
Robert Stone:
And where was that? In Philly?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Right there in Philly. Right off of… Cecil B Moore… I can’t remember the street.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Well, that’s probably good enough. I’m asking you a lot of stuff, that I probably won’t even use, but I’m just trying to… Everything I know, helps me get the timeline straight.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
There is… What I’ve got… My difficulty is, is that I’ve got a lot of information, the stuff that I can nail down pretty good, once you came on the scene. But there’s that period from, when Willie left home to, when you guys got married in what, 53 or whatever, it was? 55. So, that’s like 15 years, that’s real confusing. And there’s no real records I’ve come up with, so just trying to piece all that together. And I don’t necessarily have to dwell on it, but I want to get as much straight as I can.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
But he was ordained at some point and it sounds…
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah.
Robert Stone:
… reasonable that it was J.R. Lockley and W.L. Nelson who ordained him. It says here, in Fort Lauderdale.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, that was what I was going to tell you. Even in 1972, when we had the camp, but he came to Fort Lauderdale. And Bishop Nelson didn’t want to recognize him, but his brother recognized him and told him to come out to the camp and get his guitar. We’re all sitting in the camp, waiting until we can-
Robert Stone:
And when was that?
Jeannette Eason:
In ’72, 1972. December-
Robert Stone:
So, he played in Fort Lauderdale?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Well, was it an assembly, or just a church?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, no, it was assembly. He didn’t never, hold no malice against nobody. I guess, he just made up in his mind, if he was going to make it, he had to get out and do it on his own, you know?
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Right.
Jeannette Eason:
But he never held no malice. A matter of fact, just before Bishop Lockley died, he rented a church for him, because he couldn’t get no church in the whole city of Brooklyn, not in New York. And Willie got him a church on Ralph in Bedford. And got him at a church there, where he could come in and have the services.
Robert Stone:
Was he not with The House of God anymore, or was he…
Jeannette Eason:
Well, he was with the Pillar and Ground of Truth, but I don’t know. Something was happening, just like it happened with that child… Father up there in Sarasota…
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
… to the Bishop.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
They was breaking up and his members was beginning to seep away and all, but he had members there in Brooklyn and he wanted to have his last meeting there. And even J.R. was living at that time. He couldn’t find a church. But Willie went to…
Robert Stone:
You mean, Lockley Junior?
Jeannette Eason:
Bishop Townsend’s church, right there on Bedford and Ralph. And Bishop Townsend said, no. He said, “Let him come here.”
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
And Willie just went down in his street clothes and played again. Yeah. That’s when we were at the restaurant and…
Robert Stone:
If you had to characterize his relationship with Bishop Lockley over the years… I mean, here’s what it sounds like to me and tell me if I’m off base, or what. But, it sounds like, they had their differences and Lockley would have liked to get a control of Willie, but Willie wouldn’t let that happen. And so…
Jeannette Eason:
Not after he learned what was happening. You understand?
Robert Stone:
Right. And he learned where the money was going and all that stuff.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. With his kids, with his wife, Alyce at that…
Robert Stone:
Right. And he was…
Jeannette Eason:
The kids got to eat, they got to have food and pay rent.
Robert Stone:
Right. He was trying to make a living.
Jeannette Eason:
So, even with the car and all, he found out that, hey, [inaudible 00:24:17] blessed me. I told him, I said, “Willie, God bless you to make the money.”
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
But he’s telling you that God going to bless you, if you give it to him.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
And that’s kind of stupid. You already got it in your hands.
Robert Stone:
Right. But at the same time now, even though they had all this difficulty, one wonders why they kept up their relationship. And at least one side of it I can see, is that Lockley needed Willie, because he was a draw, he could bring people to the church. They…
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right.
Robert Stone:
They put money in… They put money into the offering.
Jeannette Eason:
Even there in Burlington and up there in Brooklyn, J.R., his son played music. They was
PART 1 OF 4 ENDS [00:25:04]
Jeannette Eason:
in that band, and he’d make his son stop. He said, “I don’t want you playing with Willie,” right from the pulpit. “We call Willie in Burlington. We want Willie to play.” They got kind of hefty about it, but when the bishops say something, you got to obey him.
Robert Stone:
Interesting.
Jeannette Eason:
Like I’m saying, with all of that, he never held no malice in his heart, his faith. I hate him. I just don’t like him. I want nothing to do with him. No, Willie was not that type of person.
Robert Stone:
Well, that’s the other side of… It’s easy for me to see why Willie was valuable the Lockley, but I guess what, I have a little harder time seeing is why Willie needed Lockley to get a… Do you have an idea on that? Why-
Jeannette Eason:
No, because at that particular time, don’t forget, he was hitting the streets and all. He began to make quite a bit of money, and he traveled to Chicago, New Orleans, all those places. I guess he really didn’t need him as bad as he thought he did. He didn’t know he could reach that climate, where people would give him money.
Robert Stone:
Do you think maybe that it might’ve been just sort of a guilt or whatever that from being raised in the church, that he thought he needed to serve Bishop Lockley whenever he could. You think that was a factor, maybe? I mean, I’m guessing.
Jeannette Eason:
No, because Bishop Lockley, one time when he caught Willie playing on the street, he had Willie to drive all the way from Philadelphia to Baltimore, get on his knees and confess to God that he would never play back on the streets again. Willie say he stayed on floor for about an hour.
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “Yeah, baby, well, what happened?” He said nothing. He said, “I act like I was praying, but I couldn’t make that commitment,” that he would never go back on the streets. By that time, he had like three or four kids, mm-mm (negative). Loretta is the oldest, so uh-uh (negative).
Jeannette Eason:
Like I say, he was a type of person, believe me, even with my own family, and the things they did to Willie, Willie wouldn’t have never left my family. I made him leave, because they was using him. Using is a good thing, and I said, “No, no, no. I can’t take that.” He often told me, “Girl, I was happy when you said let’s go.”
Jeannette Eason:
Even now, like Loretta, Loretta is back up there to Barbara’s for funeral. She was there at Christmas, but they’re easy-hearted people. They don’t want to turn nobody down, and Candy is the same way. She’ll give her last to a stranger. I know, I told him, here the other day time, “I guess we just like dad.” I said, “You are, because your daddy took the last $13 I had in the house.” Give it to the Davis Sisters, and they got drunk.
Jeannette Eason:
But he didn’t have no malice, even with the Bishop Keith and the other one, I forget now. He had him up there in the same school in Chicago, DuSable High School. He asked them to come. I think Henry and the boys, all of them, had their music and all. They really put on a beautiful program.
Robert Stone:
Who had them?
Jeannette Eason:
Willie had them there.
Robert Stone:
Oh, had the Lockley boys come?
Jeannette Eason:
No, the Keith, Keith, what’s the other one?
Robert Stone:
I don’t know. You’re confusing me now.
Jeannette Eason:
It’s two of them, Jewell.
Robert Stone:
The Keith and Jewell?
Jeannette Eason:
Bishop Jewells.
Robert Stone:
Yes.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, her and her man came to DuSable High School.
Robert Stone:
Oh, you mean Lorenzo Harrison?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
The steel player?
Jeannette Eason:
That was around ’58, ’57 or ’58. The next performance was when he had the Davis Sisters, but they outdo both groups of The Blind Boys. That’s where he packed the stadium all the way around.
Robert Stone:
Is that the one where you threw the money on the floor?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Can you hang on just a second? I got to change tapes.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
We’ll get back to that stuff before. Again, I don’t want to get off track here with the… We’re trying to go down year by year or… Believe me, you don’t know how hard it is to keep all these things on track.
Jeannette Eason:
Don’t say it. Him and his papers, I said, Oh my God. I don’t know when I ever… I’m trying to put them in an album.
Robert Stone:
What papers?
Jeannette Eason:
Just papers people sent him, like that and congratulating them, even from [inaudible 00:30:56], and all these places. It’s hard as the devil to sit and do it-
Robert Stone:
Now, let me ask you-
Jeannette Eason:
… if you’ve got other things to do.
Robert Stone:
Before we leave that, my understand is that basically everything you had, pictures, papers, whatever, it got burned in a house fire.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
That was…
Jeannette Eason:
In ’82. My pictures of Rosetta Tharpe, her books. Oh God, Maceo’s things. I had a collection but it all went.
Robert Stone:
Maceo who?
Jeannette Eason:
Hmm?
Robert Stone:
Maceo who?
Jeannette Eason:
Maceo Woods.
Robert Stone:
Maceo Woods, who was he?
Jeannette Eason:
He’s a musicianer. He’s gay, but that boy can beat out an organ.
Robert Stone:
Maceo Woods.
Jeannette Eason:
My sisters and all said they still see him out there in Chicago.
Robert Stone:
No, I heard the name, but it’s all… Let’s see, where were we? We’re down here in- to where he got ordained, and you say he did and I’ll talk to… I’ve got it in some notes from Mary Linzy. He did pastor a church in Tennessee, Knoxville somewhere. He went to the Keith Bible Institute or the Moody Bible Institute.
Jeannette Eason:
I think it was the Keith.
Robert Stone:
The Keith, yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Moody, I don’t know. He took some lessons with the Moody Bible Institute.
Robert Stone:
Okay. He went to the Keith. He did that for a while. Now, and where was he living? Do you know, in those days? Was he living out there in Tennessee or…
Jeannette Eason:
He was living there in Knoxville.
Robert Stone:
He was living in Knoxville.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I could almost go right to the mountain where it was at.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, I met the members there in, oh, God, in ’55, I think it was, ’55 or is it ’56? They welcomed him in and the cows and the goats and everything, it was like they was happy to see you. We, as young people, we was scared to get too close to them, but it was very nice people.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative), uh-huh (affirmative), so in 1945, he started around 1945. He started promoting gospel concerts.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), because don’t forget, the one, C.L. Franklin, when he brought him to Atlanta.
Robert Stone:
That was in ’45?
Jeannette Eason:
I can’t say. It had to be in ’45, because then he come to Florida with his family, around Bishop Nelson, and in ’47 is when he was crushed with the car.
Robert Stone:
1947.
Jeannette Eason:
It’s a shame we couldn’t get that paper from Marion County.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Well, I talked to Mary Linzy about that, and she said, and I actually, I went to the library there in Ocala. She said she didn’t think it was in the paper. She said the white paper wouldn’t have wasted their time publishing something about a Black person. She didn’t think there was a Black paper back then. To her-
Jeannette Eason:
It was, it was. I can’t think of her name.
Robert Stone:
You do remember it though?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Well, she worked with us. She was the only newspaper woman in Ocala.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah. She did hers the old way, rolling the papers out. I can’t even think of her name, but most likely they would have her name down there.
Robert Stone:
Was it a-
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, I know her name, Mrs. Shaw.
Robert Stone:
Mrs. Shaw.
Jeannette Eason:
S-H-A-W.
Robert Stone:
Was she Black or white?
Jeannette Eason:
She’s Black, and she came there something similar to Madam Bethune, when she came to Daytona. That’s how Mrs. Shaw came to Ocala and opened up her newspaper.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Well, this is good news. This is a major… I might be able to find that then, because-
Jeannette Eason:
She even made the handbill for Willie when he had Archie, and what was the name of them other boys?
Robert Stone:
The Blind Boys?
Jeannette Eason:
[crosstalk 00:36:04] him for The Chosens during that time, and it was another one with a tall singer and I can’t… I had it almost on-
Robert Stone:
Now, these are concerts he put on in Florida?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, at the Marion County High School.
Robert Stone:
Boy, I got to drag this stuff out of you.
Jeannette Eason:
I’m trying to think of that other group. It wasn’t The Nightingales… Trumpeteers, you remember them?
Robert Stone:
I know the name.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Well, The Trumpeteers, Archie, and who else I say? The Chosens.
Robert Stone:
Archie and the Chosens? Is that-
Jeannette Eason:
Archie Brownlee was the Blind Boys.
Robert Stone:
Right, by himself.
Jeannette Eason:
The Chosen Singers, they was all men, about five men.
Robert Stone:
Archie Brownlee was a solo act, or he sang with the-
Jeannette Eason:
No, he had his group.
Robert Stone:
The Chosens.
Jeannette Eason:
No, uh-uh (negative), Archie Brownlee had his own group.
Robert Stone:
The Blind Boys.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, from Alabama. No, from Mississippi.
Robert Stone:
And The Chosens were another group?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. They was from Mississippi, and The Chosens had they group. They were more like harmonizing, something like The Hummingbirds.
Robert Stone:
Right, right, right. That was a… And this would have been when? This was at the time when he had that accident with the car fell on him, around then?
Jeannette Eason:
No, that was after then, that was coming up in the ’50s because he even promoted down here in Sanford with carrying The Chosens around, also a Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. I was a little tiny girl during that time. I didn’t propose to him then.
Robert Stone:
But it wasn’t too much longer, right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
It was the early ’50s, because you guys got married, when?
Jeannette Eason:
Around ’50… Wait a minute. I can almost tell you, ’51, ’52 and ’53, and then he traveled back to Chicago because he had bought those buildings for the tennis and all. He would go, Willie would fly like today and be in Maryland tomorrow and Florida this day. He promoted up in Maryland, there in Salisbury, Maryland, Cambridge, Maryland. During that time, his sisters came down with The Harmonettes.
Robert Stone:
His sisters, tell me about that.
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
Tell me about his sisters. The Eason side?
Jeannette Eason:
That was Addie Eason. I think, well, Ella Mae was with them, and Addie, Earline and Leroy. They sung on the program.
Robert Stone:
Earline.
Jeannette Eason:
Earline and Leroy. Leroy and-
Robert Stone:
And Ella Mae?
Jeannette Eason:
No, Leroy is the nephew.
Robert Stone:
I know that. But Ella Mae too?
Jeannette Eason:
Ella Mae was there with them, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Addie, Ella Mae, Earline and Leroy.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
What was their group name?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, it wasn’t no group. They didn’t have no group as the Easons or nothing like that.
Robert Stone:
Okay, and they came down to Florida? Is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
To perform with The Harmonettes?
Jeannette Eason:
With who?
Robert Stone:
The Harmonettes, did you say?
Jeannette Eason:
No, with The Harmonettes.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, The Harmonettes.
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Okay. All right, so when did Willie move to Chicago Let me just backtrack. He bought that place on Flora Street in Philadelphia when he was 22, so that was like 1943 or something.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, he moved to Chicago. He was already out there with real estate, and then when Bishop Nelson got divorced for them, that was…
Robert Stone:
Ah shoot. Whoever it is, is trying hard to reach me.
Jeannette Eason:
That was around ’51 or something like that, and he was still be going to Chicago. Then after that happened, he just left and went on [crosstalk 00:41:03].
Robert Stone:
Hang on.
Jeannette Eason:
Mary Linzy, during that time, he was living out there in Chicago. She even came back with him to try to get Alyce to stay with him and raise a family and all, but when he got back down here, I think it was July, the month of July, Alyce was already pregnant. She was about seven, eight months, but it was for another man. So he gave it up.
Jeannette Eason:
Willie always has been a one-woman man. He wouldn’t go out and play no tricks on nobody. Wasn’t like his brother, Henry, and the rest of them. They loved the skirts.
Robert Stone:
When did he go to Chicago, move to Chicago?
Jeannette Eason:
It was before my time. He had been out in Chicago, he had 1918 West Adams, and what was that, like a 20 room house with tenants and all?
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
That was 1918 West Adams.
Jeannette Eason:
Right, mm-hmm (affirmative). He would sing out there on the streets. He tell you about that, how he’d been on the street corners and all.
Robert Stone:
He was out there sometime in the ’40s, because he made the-
Jeannette Eason:
He had to be, because you remember, he was up in New York and they wanted to record him to sing blues and all around, what, that was around ’47, ’48. I don’t know.
Robert Stone:
Right, yeah. He made those records with The Soul Stirrers in…
Jeannette Eason:
Was that in ’48?
Robert Stone:
’47, ’47, June ’47. By the mid, sometime in the ’40s, he already had property, and of course, he was traveling a lot. Now, let me ask you, let me… Another thing that, and I got to stop myself from jumping around, but it’s not easy.
Robert Stone:
As I understand it, and please correct me if I’m wrong. Here’s kind of the way Willie’s, let’s call it his success story, went as far as achieving the wealth that he achieved and the prosperity that he worked for and achieved, he made his money playing the music on the street corners. Then right away he invested it.
Robert Stone:
From the very beginning, the first place he bought when he was around 22 years old, he rented out part of that to The Consolers, and then apparently not too much long after that, he started getting his… The next property I hear about is in Chicago. You say he had a 20-room house there.
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Well, after we got married, we picked up two more, 1810 West Adams and 1405 West Adams.
Robert Stone:
So how many rental units did you have?
Jeannette Eason:
One was like a six family, the 1810, and a 1405 was like another big family, about 14 apartments.
Robert Stone:
The 1918 West Adams was…
Jeannette Eason:
It was like close to 20. It wasn’t 20 apartments. I’d say it was about… the basement, the main floor and everything was double, so it had to be like 10 to 12 apartments. Because even then, he had cut some out, like to a one room for bachelor, made rooms like that. Very smart what he did, because people want a safe place to live.
Robert Stone:
Now, what side and what part of Chicago is this? Is what they call the South Side or…
Jeannette Eason:
West Side.
Robert Stone:
It’s West Side. When your family moved up, what address did they moved? He moved your family into-
Jeannette Eason:
He moved the tenants out of the whole apartment on the first floor.
Robert Stone:
Of what address?
Jeannette Eason:
Of 1918, and then he moved the tenants out on the second floor for my brother and his wife and my father and mother.
Robert Stone:
Okay, good.
Jeannette Eason:
It was 16 head of them.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, right. That was 1918 West Adams.
Jeannette Eason:
Him and I lived an old shoe box.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
We couldn’t even put a baby crib in there. The baby, Linda, let’s see, and Peggy. They had to sleep in the dresser drawer. Don’t laugh.
Jeannette Eason:
Now, you can understand why he said he was happy I was ready to go.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Well, I know people who used to do that-
Jeannette Eason:
Do you know what the real funny part about it, Bob, with all what he’d done for my family and all, do you know he left and give my brother that house? He didn’t want no more parts of it, and during that time, mortgages was very low.
Jeannette Eason:
He only owed about 6,000, 6,500 or something like that on the house, and the boy lost it. He collected rent for three months before they had the foreclosure, and that was it, but never sent Willie a dime.
Robert Stone:
But that was the 1918 West Adams?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
The big place? Wow.
Jeannette Eason:
Never sent him a dime. I mean, we had it all furnished. But like he say, he forgive him all. He don’t hold no malice. Really what my family did, he could have even hated them.
Robert Stone:
Right. What was your brother’s name?
Jeannette Eason:
Charles, Charles Davis.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Let’s see, where were we? He did the thing with The Soul Stirrers. We’re getting close to the time when you come on the scene here. Well, she has it in 1950 Eason and his family moved to Chicago. Does that mean… We’re still talking before your time, so that means that him and Alyce?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Is that right? Because that’s when he was-
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, around ’51 is when they got they divorce.
Robert Stone:
Okay, so they moved to Chicago sometime. That’s all right.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, she would never go. Alyce would never go.
Robert Stone:
She never moved to Chicago?
Jeannette Eason:
No, mm-mm (negative). Nope. She had stuck on, I forget the address now, but I know it’s right off Ocklawaha Avenue here, Ocklawaha, or whatever you call it.
Robert Stone:
In Ocala?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Her father really had control over her though.
Robert Stone:
But Willie was operating out of Chicago a bunch, right? He had his real estate stuff going up there?
PART 2 OF 4 ENDS [00:50:04]
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah-
Robert Stone:
And she wouldn’t-
Jeannette Eason:
And that’s why he was trying to get her to come up there, and he made many trips. Even like I said, Mary came down with him to try to get her to go back to Chicago, and she’s telling him about the property he had and all, but she didn’t want to move. At the same time, she was running out with another guy. So I guess that was one of her ways of not going.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. But in the meantime, besides his rental properties, Willie was playing music on the street corners, is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative). So I was getting back to that. Here’s the way I understand Willie’s lifetime, as looking at it from the aspect of, how he survived and flourished economically and all that. He started with the money that he made playing the steel, and then he got into real estate pretty early on, he made money at that. He made money and lost money promoting gospel concerts. All the time, he continued to play whenever-
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right. That’s right.
Robert Stone:
And I would imagine sometimes he played more than others, or whatever. And then-
Jeannette Eason:
And I’ll tell you another hobby he had, making Mother’s Day flowers.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
We traveled to Chicago close to 10 years selling flowers out there, bringing anywhere from $2,000 to $3,500 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean? This was when you were living in Philadelphia?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
You would travel to Chicago?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And how did you make the flowers?
Jeannette Eason:
I made up the flowers at home.
Robert Stone:
Oh. What’d you make them out of?
Jeannette Eason:
He would come in out of what they call a wood fiber. We got all our products up there in New York.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean, wood fiber?
Jeannette Eason:
It’s a soft piece of material that you can make a pedestal out of and all.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
Today, you can’t find it. The only way you find something similar to that today, you seen the little roses in stations and all?
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
The little red roses, sometime they’re pink and all. Was roses like that, but we made corsages. And we made the large one and we’d make the small one. And back during then, the large one was 3.50 and the small one was 2.50, and they would grab them up just as fast as they liked until the… I think the last year the gypsies came in selling the carnations, artificial.
Robert Stone:
So you used to make how much?
Jeannette Eason:
Anywhere from $2000 to $3500. He’d have six or seven people selling. And he’d start out Friday night, let them go out in the evening on Friday, Saturday stayed out all day and Sunday, they caught the churches as the people was going in. Earline she made flowers too, but she sold them in Philly.
Robert Stone:
So you made them in Philly and then you’d take them over to Chicago, sell them?
Jeannette Eason:
Right? Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Wow. That was a lot of money back then too, $3,500 would go a long ways. This wood fiber, I’m not… you’d make the Rose petals or whatever-
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative). You were making Roses?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Cut the pebbles out and have them in a wire, the green wire and-
Robert Stone:
And they were already colored. Right? The material’s already colored?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Robert Stone:
You said the large was $3.50?
Jeannette Eason:
The large one was $3.50, and the small one was $2.50.
Robert Stone:
How big was the large one?
Jeannette Eason:
The large one had two open roses and about four, I would put two on each side of the small roses that never opened, and then the ribbon like that. It had leaves and everything on it. It wasn’t no joy, I mean, it wasn’t no, you just slap something together, it had to be beautiful.
Robert Stone:
Right? Yeah. Wow. That’s something.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. And Saturdays, he would go out to sing Saturday evening on the corners, he’d have somebody there selling flowers.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, and I bet I know what he’s sang too.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah.
Robert Stone:
If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right, that’s right. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Who might sell the flowers? Would it be somebody from the family, that would be there with, selling the flowers while he sang?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Uh-huh (affirmative). And then he had good tenants. He always got along with his tenants, there was Tom and [Zelmo 00:55:04], they would get up there and worked right along with us.
Robert Stone:
So he’d give them a little something?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative). During that time, they was getting I think it was 10% or 15% or something like that. And then Willie would always give them extra if he made good. Treat them out to dinner and all, and still give them their percentage. So I guess that loosed it up too, to know that I’m going to get something, I’m not doing it just for free. Because they had families too.
Robert Stone:
Right. Sure. So you’re saying to $2000 to $3500, was that your gross or was that what you actually netted?
Jeannette Eason:
That’s what we netted. All together with all the material and everything, it never went up to $1000, stuff was real cheap during that. But the traveling is what got us with the gas or something like that. And then gas was cheap, so it was mostly the wear and tear on the bodies.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Right. Those old cars weren’t that good, and that was a long way. Yeah. It’s like, you tell somebody, in those days, in 1952, the best way you could travel was a ’52 automobile.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right.
Robert Stone:
It wasn’t that good. You had a brand new ’52, whatever it was, it wasn’t that good.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-mm (negative). No indeed. And he turned it back to the people when he took my family and drove up the ’41 Buick up there, fixed it up and over Lookout Mountain and all, it was during the time you’d go to the top of mountain and you come down. He on his way down and didn’t have no brakes, but he stopped that car. My father almost fainted. “You mean to tell me you’ve got my kids in the car and no brakes?” He said, “Daddy, we’ll make it out.” He always called my father and mother, daddy, and mother, always.
Robert Stone:
So yeah, I need to talk to Bishop Baldwin.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
About this thing in Macon and, as I understand it, Bishop Baldwin or somebody in Macon, it was the radio DJ or whatever was the one that called him, “Little Willie and His Talking Guitar”
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Yeah. He lived with them. I don’t know how long, but I know he lived with them. And I think that’s where Sherry was trying to get some of her information from Bishop Baldwin.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. She may have talked to them. I never have. I’ve actually met them, but didn’t know who they were at the time. And so I need to get-
Jeannette Eason:
And if I’m not mistaken, that’s where they got the picture when Willie was young and that amplifier and the guitar was on it. Bishop Baldwin was the only one that had that picture.
Robert Stone:
You guys had it. I got it from you.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. But it was sent through him.
Robert Stone:
Oh really?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. We didn’t have that because even with his song book and all that was lost in the fire. Yeah. It worked out for him, It’s all I can say. He worked them fingers.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve got to get going to a doctor’s appointment?
Jeannette Eason:
No, I’ve got to go and pick Troman up from the hospital.
Robert Stone:
Okay. You’ve got to go soon or how are we?
Jeannette Eason:
What time is it?
Robert Stone:
It’s only 2:06.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. No, I go round 3:00.
Robert Stone:
Oh Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Okay. So when you and Willie got married and he moved your family up, that was Chicago… Oh, I’ll tell you what, before we get started on that, I’m going to change tapes. So when you and Willie got married, you moved up to Chicago with the family, 16 people, and they lived at… She has… This is another place where Sherry messed up. She had it 1936 Street, North of Germantown Avenue, that’s in Philadelphia.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
You guys moved to Chicago-
Jeannette Eason:
And it wasn’t 36, it was ’38. 1938, near Norris that’s what it was. Because Henry lived right around the corner from us on Norris.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Let’s see. So how long did you all live in Chicago?
Jeannette Eason:
Not too long. ’54 up to, Peggy was born in ’58. He had really got disgusted, and I knew it, but he always said he didn’t want to be the one that pressured me for moving out. He wanted me to make up my own mind, and when I made it up, I made it up. I said, “Let’s go.”
Robert Stone:
Was it in ’59 that you moved?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Peggy was born ’58. Yeah, because in ’59, Ada was born and we was in Philly.
Jeannette Eason:
That was ’58, when we left. Never will forget that day.
Robert Stone:
Why is that?
Jeannette Eason:
It was amazing. I felt like a fly out of a cage. Yeah, it was so comical we’re back.
Robert Stone:
What drove you all from Chicago?
Jeannette Eason:
The way our parents was acting and-
Robert Stone:
So you needed to get away from the family?
Jeannette Eason:
The way they treated him. My father would curse him out. And I sent Willie back one day, I said, “You get back to the stairs and you curse him back.” Willie went to the stairs, and my father was standing there, a big man… standing up there, Willie was like a little boy under him when he stood up. And Willie said, “Daddy,” at first my father didn’t answer. He said, “Daddy, come to the step, I’ve got something to tell you.” So he walked out, and he said, “What boy?” his voice was very heavy. Willie said, “Damn it to you!”
Jeannette Eason:
He said, “You made me curse.” I said, “Willie, that’s not a curse word.” Well, my father, he almost lost it himself, because he went running back in the room and telling my mother “That boy cursed me out” I said, “Oh my God, there he goes.” But see, he’d never heard Willie say it. So, I knew then, it was time for something to happen because he’s got to respect him for what he’d done and all, and uh-uh (negative), we just got up, we went out to Chicago suburbs and bought a homemade trailer. And at the time he had, what was that? A ’49 or ’50 Cadillac.
Jeannette Eason:
And he hooked the trailer to it, we put a stove, where I was working at with the restaurant, the man gave me a brand new TV, and we had bought a baby bed from the thrift store and a box spring and mattress and our bed. And we moved to Philly. But we was coming down the turnpike and it was so weird, a state trooper pulled us over. And Willie said, “Sir, can I help you?” he said, “What have I done wrong?” He said, “It isn’t what you’ve done,” he says, “it’s what your trailer has done”. Got out and looked, Bob, and the bumper was away from the Cadillac, and just thank God he had one of the chains around one of the real steel pieces under the car-
Robert Stone:
Right? Safety chain, [crosstalk 01:04:27] pulled the bumper off.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. The police officer told us how far down we had to go. He said, “Just take it easy to go down.” He said, “The boys in that town will help you get fixed up.” And we come on into Philly.
Robert Stone:
Did you have a place to stay right away or what did you-
Jeannette Eason:
We bought our house ahead of time. Made a trip over there.
Robert Stone:
And where was that?
Jeannette Eason:
The 1938 North 6th street. Then he turned around, he bought another one, 1939, yeah.
Robert Stone:
Right next door?
Jeannette Eason:
No, about two doors down. That was a six-room apartment house-
Robert Stone:
They rented that out?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative). I had tenants even over me on… I had three tenants in my house, but the house was pretty big. All brick, something like the little brownstones in New York. Well, a nice section during that time, but I wouldn’t live there now. And then I didn’t like Philly so we hustled and we bustled there with the service station with Henry, and he was singing down in Longside and I went looking like a nut with real estate and found a farm.
Jeannette Eason:
You don’t know about that, huh?
Robert Stone:
Yeah. You’ve told me a little bit about that.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Dorothy, New Jersey. It was only $8,500 for the five acres and a eight-room house. Chicken coops and everything was on it. But then he decided, he’s singing up in New York and bought a darn restaurant, and then I had to live there. I said, “Not me. I ain’t going to stay down here on the farm, traveling 40 miles to Longside and coming in four o’clock in the morning. No way, uh-uh (negative). Nope.” That’s how long the clubs and things would stay open.
Jeannette Eason:
We worked as a team, that’s all I can say. Yeah, and it wasn’t me blaming him or he blaming me, because even Edward tell the kids today, he’d say, you know what? He said? “Our dad and mom was two of the greatest people I know.” He said, “Because if you asked mama something and you don’t ask daddy, you’ve got to go face your daddy in order to get there.” Then he’d turn around and ask him “Well, go ask your mother.” It was it, Ed walked right out the door, go down the basement, start playing pool.
Robert Stone:
So, when did you get rid of that place in Dorothy?
Jeannette Eason:
Around ’64. Because immediately that was in ’60, we moved on up to… my son Junior born in ’62, and we already had the restaurant then, so it had to be in ’60. But he had already bought a house up there. Because it was during that time [crosstalk 01:08:01] $500 down-
Robert Stone:
No, wait a minute. Tell me about, your restaurants were all called, “Fat Willy from Philly?”
Jeannette Eason:
Yes. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Quincy and Nostrand-
Robert Stone:
Sherry Dupree gives the addresses of 862 Sutter Avenue, 868 New Lots Avenue, and 2186 Atlantic Avenue, all in Brooklyn, are those right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Okay. And which one came first?
Jeannette Eason:
The sit-down restaurant, on Quincy and Nostrand
Robert Stone:
So was that Lots Avenue, Atlantic Avenue or Sutter?
Jeannette Eason:
No. No, no. That’s down, what they call, in the Bedford section when we got to A62 that’s East New York.
Robert Stone:
Okay. So you had one before that? Before these three?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Nostrand and Quincy. That was a sit-down restaurant, that I didn’t want, mm-mm (negative).
Robert Stone:
Okay. So, the first restaurant… And it was at where, North Street?
Jeannette Eason:
No, I can’t think of the address of it. It was Nostrand and Quincy.
Robert Stone:
And what neighborhood was that in, you said Bedford-
Jeannette Eason:
What they call a Bedford Section.
Robert Stone:
Bedford-Stuyvesant or Bedford-
Jeannette Eason:
Bedford–Stuyvesant, yeah. You’ve got it.
Robert Stone:
But you didn’t want it?
Jeannette Eason:
No. Mm-mm (negative). Somebody coming in and get a cup of coffee and sit all day long, and read newspapers. Uh-uh (negative), that wasn’t for me. That’s what I wanted. But, mm-mm (negative) not after that.
Robert Stone:
So you sold that one?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
And got the other three?
Jeannette Eason:
We was in there for 24 hours a day.
Robert Stone:
Right. And the other three were all takeout?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. No sitting down. Get it and go.
Robert Stone:
Okay. See, I never knew that, it’s not a big deal but… You’re wearing me out, it’s a lot. I don’t know how much of them I’m even going to use, but I’m trying to get straight on. I think, at least I’ll understand the situation. Now let me ask you, so all this time he would play the steel sometimes, even though you had the restaurants?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh yeah.
Robert Stone:
And then he also did some stuff with Lockley?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
All during all this time?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
He stayed with him, and Bishop had gotten old when he went at that church for that last meeting. And it wasn’t too long behind that when he passed. Because he really shocked Willie, because we had people all the way around the corner that night. And it was so crowded, and I had Willie putting the ribs and the chicken on the rotisserie and all at once he looked up and how he eased his way through that crowd. He tapped on the door and told Willie to come out. And the people said, “No, he can’t come out.” So after Willy put the ribs on, then he went out and he talked to him and found out that’s what he was looking for, a church to have a service.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative). So Willie was always, despite of all the differences they had over the years, he was willing to, he was always… often, maybe not always, but he repeatedly would serve Bishop Lockley in being a musician or whatever.
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes, indeed.
Robert Stone:
Now, did Willie do any preaching or pastoring during these years, or was that all behind him?
Jeannette Eason:
No, he was mostly singing.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. He would even play for bishops that have those readings and things like that, right there on Nostrand every Thursday night. Willie would make $250 for just having the music there and playing it while he’s telling the people what they can do and what they can’t do and what to expect. You know what kind of people that is? I call them, “voodoo people”, but he didn’t mind it-
Robert Stone:
Street preachers, is that what you mean?
Jeannette Eason:
Who that?
Robert Stone:
You confused me. Who was Willie playing this music for?
Jeannette Eason:
For men that was getting people in to read them, like fortune tellers-
Robert Stone:
Oh, really.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh God, I can’t think of the one there in Philly, Ella may know him. He even tried to have sex with Candy, Willie’s daughter, a very dirty man. Then Barbara, she had one and he would get $250 to come over, anywhere from $250 to $300 to play there for him, getting people interested in the music and he get the money.
Robert Stone:
So, he would play outside the place and they’d come in?
Jeannette Eason:
No inside.
Robert Stone:
He’d play inside?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
How would they know to come in?
Jeannette Eason:
Oh, they know to come in because they-
Robert Stone:
They hear it from the street? I’m trying to understand what was going on.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, what it is, he would have the people, they set up these meetings to come, be to the church at seven, and-
Robert Stone:
You mean, for a seance or whatever they call it?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Mm-hmm (affirmative), and all Willie would do is just play the music real low and entertain them, I guess him. Yep, some was bishops and some, I don’t know, they tried to be bishops, but then the federal government got behind them and started looking in their mail and finding out how much money was being sent through the mail. One out of Philly, he had to leave and come to Florida.
Robert Stone:
When was was this?
Jeannette Eason:
When was that? That was in the 70s. Well, it started in ’59 with one on…
PART 3 OF 4 ENDS [01:15:04]
Jeannette Eason:
Well, it started in ’59 with the one on Nostrand Avenue. But from then on, all of them would try to get him to come there and do music for them on Folsom Street. Some of them names I can’t even call.
Robert Stone:
I guess I’m having a little bit trouble understanding what kind of operation these guys had going on.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, what? I’ll explain to you like this, okay. If they was going to interview me right? What they do, they would get you or get somebody else for you to talk about your life, okay?
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Then when they get in church, this guy, he calls you up and he starts telling you, “You have a backache” or something like that, or “Your man is running out on you.” It’s just stupid.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Because you done already told what’s wrong, so how can the man read everything that you got?
Robert Stone:
Right. In other words, he would present himself as somebody who could read your fortune or could know all about you without you telling him anything.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, and some of the people was so stupid, Bob. He said “There is an F in the house, stand up F.” Well, if it was Franklin, or Frank, quite natural the man’s going to stand up.
Robert Stone:
Right, right.
Jeannette Eason:
But he was pulling in money.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, down here in Fort Lauderdale in 1961, we came down for three months and that was right after we had sold, what you call it, the farm and we lived with the woman, mother Pearl. She even knew mother Tate and all of them. And she had guys come out of Miami with the roots in the bottle, with water in there and selling aspirins. Two aspirins for $100. And I told Will, I said “This is sick, this is really sick.” He said, “Well Jean, that’s what she do.” And her name was mother Pearl. She was a good preacher. She could really preach, but me, I knew it was wrong. I wasn’t raised that way. My parents didn’t believe in it, that voodoo and somebody’s going to spread something on your steps and make you die, make you bark like a dog, and it’s crazy.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah. But he made plenty of money doing it for them. And like I said, Willie was a hustler and all through the years it seemed like he used his brain. That’s why I have to, when the doctor said that in the hospital that he would not die from the infection, he would not die from pneumonia.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
He would not die from his heart. He said, the only thing will take Willie from his family is his brain.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
I said, “Well, he worked that brain. God knows he worked it.”
Robert Stone:
Yeah he always had an angle working didn’t he? Or three or four of them.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I mean, he was, I wouldn’t say to the extent greedy, but it’s mostly protecting his family and knowing how to do it.
Robert Stone:
Right, exactly. Exactly. He had a lot of people to look out for.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, because even with my mother and father with all they’d done, and they moved from Florida up there with us. And when both of them got sick, Willie was right there. When my father, he was in the hospital and all, Willie was right there for him, kept him from falling and everything and turned around and buried him and my mother. And my family didn’t give a damn. So he says, “That’s my mother.” He said, “I got to take care of my mother.”
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
So he had those restaurants going in Brooklyn there.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And where were you living at that time, when you had the restaurants? Okay, you moved from Chicago to Philly, right?
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
You moved from Chicago. I’m trying to get straight where you guys lived.
Jeannette Eason:
From Chicago to Philly.
Robert Stone:
You moved from Chicago to Philly.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And then-
Jeannette Eason:
From Philly to Dorothy.
Robert Stone:
From Philly to Dorothy.
Jeannette Eason:
And in ’61, we moved up to New York, Brooklyn.
Robert Stone:
In Brooklyn and where did you live in Brooklyn here? You remember that address?
Jeannette Eason:
88 Hoff Street.
Robert Stone:
88 Hoff Street.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) But see, I don’t like the Jews. Yeah, boy, the neighborhood, I couldn’t take them. We were in there for a little while. We bought 473 Barber Street. We moved out 88 Hoff, went to Barber Street.
Jeannette Eason:
473 Barber Street?
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
That’s East New York. And that was okay until weather got warm and all these boys and they girlfriends sitting on my doorstep. No. They broke into the basement while the girls was upstairs and stole all my stuff off the dressers and all. And we moved from there and Willie had seen 862 Sutter, right by a big church there.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And he said, “Jean” he said, “I think that’s what we should do, is open a barbecue place there.” So in the meantime, we got rid of the other restaurant and we come over to 862 Sutter, but 862 had a four bedroom, three bedroom upstairs. It was a pretty large building. Then-
Robert Stone:
Oh so you lived where the restaurant was?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah. And what I done, I had an apartment on the second floor.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
On the third floor, the second floor, and on the main floor we got in there and redone the place, fixing it up and all. And we had even the basement where the kids could have they rooms and all.
Robert Stone:
And where’d you have the restaurant? On the street?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah. But that was the walk-in restaurant. That’s the way we made it. So the kitchen, as you go up three steps was the kitchen where I normally do all my yams and stuff like that. And I had a sitting room up there with anybody who wanted to come in and visit him, Barbara and all and they could come back there and be back there with him.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And you walk down them steps, and then you turn and walk down into the basement and that was fixed up for all the kids.
Robert Stone:
Oh. And you stayed there at 862 Sutter for how, when did you leave there?
Jeannette Eason:
We went over, we never left there. We went over to 868 New Lots.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean you never left? But I’m talking about your residence.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, we kept 862. We were not in a private home no more. You understand me?
Robert Stone:
No.
Jeannette Eason:
So we went to 868 New Lots and Willie would come back with the food and stuff that I was preparing for 862. And I had Peggy, Linda, and I had six waitresses there for the weekend. And I would stay on New Lots. It’s crazy.
Robert Stone:
So you lived in both places?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). But not the kids, the kids stayed at 862, and Willie would go over there and spend the nights with them. I’d stay at 868. And then one of the kids was small or something like that, four or five years old, I kept them with me.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And then when we got to Atlantic Avenue, we was living in Teaneck. We had bought a home out there in Teaneck, in ’67.
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
A lot of moving around, huh?
Robert Stone:
Yeah well, a lot of us did. Now that’s the place, that place was on a water or something?
Jeannette Eason:
Who that?
Robert Stone:
Your place in Teaneck.
Jeannette Eason:
No right on Church Street.
Robert Stone:
And what was the address there, do you remember?
Jeannette Eason:
28.
Robert Stone:
28 Church Street?
Jeannette Eason:
28 Church Street, Teaneck road. The school was right there, was nothing but churches.
Robert Stone:
28 Church Street near Teaneck road, is that what you’re saying?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
That was a pretty nice place?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah that way we got the kids in the school, Brooklyn was kind of bad for kids trying to go to school.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
So we decided we’d buy that. We only paid $28,000 for it, it was a 10 room house, plus the basement. Everybody called it a barn. And we went in and fixed that up, got some guys from Haiti to come over and they stayed there and worked on the house and fixed it like Willie wanted.
Jeannette Eason:
But I got stuck at 2186 Atlantic Avenue. I’d go in on Mondays and not only did I have the barbecue place, I had the antique store right next door. I’d bring myself in Monday and I wouldn’t see my house not more until Sunday morning, five o’clock. I always let him go and check on the kids and all, make sure the kids was okay.
Robert Stone:
You guys had a lot going on.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Everybody said, “Well, you staying in that place?” Some of the women gossiping. I said, “Yeah, I stayed in there. I got my man.” “What man? You got a man on us?” Mm-hmm (affirmative) the .38.
Robert Stone:
I thought it was the .45.
Jeannette Eason:
I had the .45 and the .38. I slept with .38 under my head, the .45 was on my night table. Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Robert Stone:
Oh Lord.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
And then, so you lived in Teaneck up until the time you moved to St. Pete?
Jeannette Eason:
No, when we moved to Ringwood, I got burnt out in ’82.
Robert Stone:
Okay, so-
Jeannette Eason:
We moved up to Ringwood, up at 208 there, up in-
Robert Stone:
So, your home burned down in 1982?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And that’s Teaneck?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Moved to Ringwood, New Jersey?
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
What was your address there? You remember?
Jeannette Eason:
29 Hickory Road.
Robert Stone:
29 Hickory Road. What’d you do? Did you have insurance? I mean-
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah, we had insurance. Allstate didn’t want to pay at first. You know how you have these little guys representing a insurance company?
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
He made an appointment and came out to Teaneck to the lawyer’s office and the lawyer called us and said, “You got to come in, he’ll meet you at a certain time.” And he was supposed to be bringing us a check.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And when he brought the check in, the lawyer asked him, Ray asked him, he said, “Well, what is Allstate offering?” And he said $37,000. My husband told him, “You’re fired.” He tried to make every excuse he could. “Well, no they’re not going to give you no more and all.” And the lawyer told him to get out.
Jeannette Eason:
Mr. Eason told me you’re fired, get out. And when it burned down, because God Willie fixed that house, so even the plumber, I don’t know if I ever told you about it, he had a black bathtub, black stool, the sink, and then he had a red and pinkish tile, all on the walls and all around the bath tub. And in the ceiling, he had the mirror and that house was fixed tile all the way through. Nobody could believe we had done that much to the house. And when this girl Dee, we both worked with sales and when she found out about it, she’s a Jewish girl, but she stuck with us every morning through the snow seven o’clock.
Jeannette Eason:
She was at the hotel we were staying in, bringing coffee and bagels and blankets. And she asked me one day, she said, “Jean what about you…” Oh, that’s what they was asking about, the insurance policy. How in the heck are you going to ask for insurance policy, when a house burnt for nine and a half hours. The meter, the gas meter blew off. They had to come and put, they had about eight or 10 fire trucks there. They couldn’t even find the line because by being an old house, the line, the gas line had drifted or moved or something like that, and they dug up the whole yard until they found it. But they had to spray the foam in there to try to cut the fire down.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Right? And when they did that, so if everything burned, even his, he had, I had bought him a concert organ that went in the basement.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
The piano went in the basement. I mean, things just fell. And they wanted me to give them my insurance policy.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, hang on just a second I got to change tapes.
Jeannette Eason:
So I told Dee about it, this Jewish girl, I said, “They want me to show them my policy.” She said, “Wait a minute I got mine, and they should read just alike.” So she brought it over to the lawyer’s office, the lawyer read it. He said “In the contents of the policy, they’re supposed to give you a certain amount for what’s inside the house.”
Robert Stone:
Right, contents yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
What you spent-
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
… while you was in the motels, they’re supposed to pay all of that. Plus they’re supposed to give $120,000 for the new home that you want to move into.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And they show you how humble Willie was. Oh my God, this was a lot of money, but it was stuff that I had lost, antiques and all. And this girl went to the D building there in New- and they copied everything of mine from some of the stuff they had in there and showed it, had pictures to show what was in that house and how it got ruined and all. And so therefore then the contents went up to $144,000 plus $120K for the house. But we found the house for $100,002. So it saved them what? Close to $1,300 to $1,400 they didn’t have to pay, so far as the house was.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
And that’s how we bought the other home.
Robert Stone:
Wow.
Jeannette Eason:
At first they said, take the $37,000 and build back on the lot where the house burned down. But then Willie turned around, now and see Jersey is different from a lot of these towns. That house, your own, is your lot. The city don’t claim it.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
And Willie went back and sold the lot for $14,000. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Wow. So then from there you moved to St. Petersburg?
Jeannette Eason:
Huh?
Robert Stone:
From there, you moved to St. Petersburg? From-
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
After the house burned down, you moved to-
Jeannette Eason:
Ringwood, New Jersey.
Robert Stone:
Ringwood, New Jersey, 29-
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right out from Oakland, New Jersey, you go up over the mountains.
Robert Stone:
Right, but you were still running the restaurants?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And you did that. You ran the restaurants until you left for St. Pete?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, for Florida.
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Well that’s the building he sold and the lawyer took a regular check. That’s why Willie talks about how much money we’ve lost. And he was selling it for $165,000. He put down $10,000. But if I had checked to the closing and that day they was going for the Liberty Bell out there in ocean by Staten Island, where they remodeled the thing. Everybody was rushing to get out there because it was coming up to the 4th of July and our lawyer took a personal check, minus the money that he was supposed to get. And the check bounced on the 18th of July.
Jeannette Eason:
So he let him tell it, he could get the property, turn the property right back on it. That was a 25 family property and the rents alone was $6,500.
Robert Stone:
Oh, it was a 25 family property.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
What was 25? 29 Hickory road?
Jeannette Eason:
We was living at 29 Hickory.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, what was the 25 family property?
Jeannette Eason:
That was 2186.
Robert Stone:
Hickory road?
Jeannette Eason:
2186 Atlantic Avenue, the restaurant.
Robert Stone:
Oh, so that was also a rental property.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah, right on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hopkinson.
Robert Stone:
Atlantic Avenue and what?
Jeannette Eason:
And Hopkinson.
Robert Stone:
Hopkinson. And how about the place on Sutter and New Lots? Were they run-
Jeannette Eason:
All those we had sold. We was closing down. We sold the one on Sutter Avenue, then we sold the one over on New Lots Avenue.
Robert Stone:
But had they been rental properties for you?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, that was rental properties. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
So at that time, when you were, just trying to get an idea, when you were living in, when you had those restaurants going in Brooklyn, how many total rental units did you have?
Jeannette Eason:
Rentals? Oh God.
Robert Stone:
There was a three-
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, all together he had three 25 family buildings, and the other one was 20 family. And what was 644? Essex Street was a six family. I forgot about Fountain Avenue, it was a six family also. Willie had stretched out in real estate.
Robert Stone:
So three 25. So that’s 75.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
95.
Jeannette Eason:
95 we had, all total, he had 280 tenants, and he evicted during that time, he only evicted two tenants. One was a man and one was a woman.
Robert Stone:
Now 280 tenants at the one-time there?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
In New York?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Robert Stone:
Wow. [crosstalk 01:37:11] You counted everybody in the family as a tenant or just one?
Jeannette Eason:
No, just every apartment.
Robert Stone:
280 apartments?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Does he have the six family? Oh gosh, I forgot another one. He had 710 Essex Street. That was right round from 866 New Lots.
Robert Stone:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) okay, that’s all I’m trying to give, one of my points is that, and again is that basically the story of you and him.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Is that he got his start playing the steel guitar.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right.
Robert Stone:
And from that, he took that money and he put it in rental properties, restaurants, and the other things he did, like the mother’s day flowers and all that. But all this money went into that, and you eventually worked up to 250 rental units.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Wow I thought it was more like 150, that’s a lot. And 250 rental units by the time that you guys retired and moved to St. Pete.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Yeah, okay.
Jeannette Eason:
My phone is ringing, I don’t know who it is.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Well look, you got to get going. It’s 3:00 and I need to get going too, so-
Jeannette Eason:
Okay, well-
Robert Stone:
We’re probably-
Jeannette Eason:
Call me any time, I’ll be home tomorrow too.
Robert Stone:
Okay, well I may well do it. Thanks a million, Jean. This has been real good. I’m getting a lot of stuff straight here.
Jeannette Eason:
Okay.
Robert Stone:
Alrighty, take care and hey, give my best to Troman.
Jeannette Eason:
I will.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, okay. That’s a tough deal there.
Jeannette Eason:
All right.
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
Bye-bye.
Robert Stone:
Bye.
PART 4 OF 4 ENDS [01:38:52]
Robert Stone:
So, he was recovering from surgery then when we met in ’94. I think it was January when I was over at your place, ’94. But mainly what I want to talk to you about is, you got all these restaurants going there in New York and obviously, you guys were pretty busy with all that, you had your hands full. How much… And I would assume that he played and performed less and less over the years, is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-mm (negative).
Robert Stone:
No?
Jeannette Eason:
No. I was working in the restaurant with my girls and it was more like a family business, but him and Roosevelt… I know you heard him speak of Roosevelt, the guy that used to play-
Robert Stone:
Roosevelt Eberhardt, right?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Eberhardt. Uh-huh (affirmative). Now, they’d leave and they go singing. Let me tell you another treat. After they get through singing, they go to the movies. Them two guys was crazy over the Western movies. Honest to God, they would go to one movie, move from that one if something different was playing in the next one, they’d go to that. Sometime Willie and Roosevelt didn’t get home till closing time, four o’clock in the morning. It’s such a joke with him. Yeah. Now, Willie was not in that restaurant. What he would do, he’d go and get all the merchandise I needed. I’d write my list out, he get everything and then he would run around to his tenants and collect, come back in and he said, “Jean, can I take a 15 minute nap?” “Yeah, go to sleep.” “Wake me up in 15 minutes.” I wouldn’t wake him up because I knew he was tired.
Jeannette Eason:
But then he would mess around and after if he had people working like the carpenters or the plumbers or something like that, he’d go in and check with them. But then from Friday to Sunday in the evenings, him and Roosevelt was out singing. And even sometime during the day, they’d go like five o’clock or something like that, they sang like for two hours and stop when it started getting dusk dark, them jokers would trek out of here.
Robert Stone:
Now, they were singing on the streets?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative), in New York?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). 7th Avenue, I can’t think of the other street in there. It’s not too far from the theater. 125th street, in that area. 7th Avenue.
Robert Stone:
So that’s in Harlem?
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Not far from what theater, you remember?
Jeannette Eason:
How far from where?
Robert Stone:
What theater?
Jeannette Eason:
What’s the main theater there? Oh, gosh. Yeah, they had programs at 2:00.
Robert Stone:
Oh, yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
It even come on now.
Robert Stone:
All I can think of is the Cotton Club, that’s not right.
Jeannette Eason:
Not the Cotton Club.
Robert Stone:
Oh, man. It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Jeannette Eason:
What in the Devil’s- it’s something. That is being really good and this is doggone shame. Because at the Cotton Club, he sang down there when the boxer, the pretty boy boxer… What was his name? He came out and he would listen to them. Sugar Ray Robinson.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I almost thought of theater. That dark. What is the name of that theater?
Robert Stone:
It’s a place where Rosetta Tharpe played too.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, it’s at 125th street. This is a doggone shame.
Robert Stone:
Well, we’ll think of it. I know where you mean. But we can’t neither one of us think of it. It’s still going today.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Mm-hmm (affirmative). They have the comedians and kids come in and sing. Apollo.
Robert Stone:
Apollo. Right. So, Willie performed there?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah.
Robert Stone:
More than once?
Jeannette Eason:
I would say about two or three times, going in and playing and coming out. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Him and his friend, Joe Davis and Charlie Storey. Charlie Storey was supposed to be the Mayor of Brooklyn and he’s still living today.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, I talked to him.
Jeannette Eason:
And he used to have the big concerts in the park there.
Robert Stone:
What park?
Jeannette Eason:
He was using the whole park. It was all full. What street was that now? Not [inaudible 00:05:35]. It’s another street but [inaudible], it went up and down the cross street. Otherwise, it was closer to Fulton Street. I think the name… Now, Peggy will know that park if I call her. I can get the name of the park though.
Robert Stone:
That might not be necessary.
Jeannette Eason:
Because Peggy was up there. Matter of fact, she was going to see him when she was in Brooklyn there for a while and helping him out because he couldn’t walk and he was sitting in a wheelchair. His wife is in a nursing home.
Robert Stone:
Who’s that?
Jeannette Eason:
That was Charlie Storey.
Robert Stone:
Charlie Storey. Yeah.
Jeannette Eason:
But Peggy said he had his program. So he told her that he can still sing.
Robert Stone:
Uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah, I talked to him on the phone, seems like about a year or two ago, I talked to her most. Anyhow, so Willie kept playing. And how about his involvement with the House of God? Now, wait, let me back up a little bit. Did he and Roosevelt ever quit playing or did they keep like keep playing until…
Jeannette Eason:
No, they kept playing whenever… What’s his name? Lockley wanted them and was having service. They kept playing. It was another town in Jersey below Philly that he even went down there and played. One of the girls was the pastor of the church and all. And he even offered that church to Willie, but Willie said no, he didn’t want no more pastoring.
Robert Stone:
But then he got involved with the Gethsemane Baptist Church and that was in West New York?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. Reverend Wilson, was the master of music for 13 years. And they travel quite a bit with them buses.
Robert Stone:
What do you mean they travel quite a bit?
Jeannette Eason:
Well, he’s in West New York and they had churches in Jersey city. I’m thinking the name of another town. It’s a big college. Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Bryn Mawr.
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative)?
Robert Stone:
Bryn Mawr. That’s PA.
Jeannette Eason:
No.
Robert Stone:
That’s in Pennsylvania.
Jeannette Eason:
They went all over, all over there and not even come back into Brooklyn… Not Brooklyn, the Bronx. They would travel to different churches. They call them the singing preachers.
Robert Stone:
Now was he just singing or playing a steel too?
Jeannette Eason:
No, he was playing a steel guitar and playing the piano.
Robert Stone:
And so that was… He hooked up with them in 1968 and stayed with them for 13 years. Is that right?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Yeah. So, that was all through the ’70s.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Around the late ’60s.
Jeannette Eason:
When the deacon came to the house, he had met Willie. He was in moving business and he came to the house and Willie was sitting there playing the piano and he said, “You can play the piano like that.” He said, “Come on and be the master of the piano at my church.” He called it Maestro. And he said, “Well, I only play by ear.” After he went in the first Sunday, they wouldn’t let him go because they didn’t have pianos at that time.
Robert Stone:
How big of a church was that? How many… What size of congregation?
Jeannette Eason:
I would say it was like a medium size and it was more of a family church. You know how that goes. But they had anywhere from 100 to about 150, 175 members.
Robert Stone:
So, did that end his… Did he stop dealing with the House of God then?
Jeannette Eason:
No, he would still go with… What’s his name? Lockley, if Lockley called. Like I said, he never had no hate or nothing like that or dislike or nothing. Even like the place in South Jersey, I can’t think of the name of it, but it’s about 40 to 45 miles out of Philly, and he had him to go down there and play down there while the program was going on while this woman was being set up as a pastor. And it was no big church, but they just wanted it to be a good service. And other than that, if he called Willie, Willie went. He didn’t bother. Like I was telling you even his own son Jr. played in that band when he was traveling. But he tell Jr., “No, cut it off. I want to hear Willie.”
Robert Stone:
So at this point… What’s his name? Bishop Lockley, he was based in Philadelphia.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. He was staying in Philly. Yeah. He never moved up to New York enough and he stayed right there in Philly.
Robert Stone:
But did he have… Was he have churches in New York?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, he had churches up on Myrtle Avenue and… What’s that other street? Now, Myrtle, the train run across it. Oh gosh. Right on the corner- was a beautiful church. But then the members didn’t want him no more. So that’s why he had to get another church or try to find a church for his last service, I guess in New York.
Robert Stone:
Really?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
So, by the time you guys left and what was it? ’86, ’87?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
When was it you moved to St. Pete?
Jeannette Eason:
It was ’87. Yeah, August of ’87.
Robert Stone:
So was he still doing… So was Willie, like he wasn’t active in the House of God, was he? Just as a musician?
Jeannette Eason:
No, just so as a musician. Other than that time when they tried him out there in Knoxville, Tennessee, as a pastor and he gave that up.
Robert Stone:
And so really he hadn’t been really active in the church for years as far as being a member.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, no.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. But like ever since you guys were married, he wasn’t?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), no. Mm-mm (negative). Bishop Lockley is so funny about him. He knew Willie, but he like resented me due to the fact I wasn’t in his organization or sanctified church or nothing like that. But he still tried to get Willie on several occasions, to do things, take him to New York and all like that. The last time he took him, he gave him a Kosher hot dog up on the East side and sent him home, paid his way home by train. When I asked Willie, I asked him, “Well, what did he pay you?” “All he gave me a Kosher hot dog.” I said, “What? I don’t feed these kids…” And when he came back, I told them, I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Willie can’t take you no more.” Not with him pulling in the money from all the churches down here and all that was disgusting.
Robert Stone:
So Willie played for him both in Philly and New York when you all were living there and in Jersey?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Okay. And do you know when Lockley died? Or would you know-
Jeannette Eason:
That was the same year… I’m trying to think exactly… I don’t know whether it was warm weather? It was spring, I think it was of… Well, I got to go back to Jolene and Michael. Jolene was born in ’66. Michael in ’68. So it had to be around ’68 or ’69, when, I mean, the business was really loaded with people. And it had to be during the summer months. It was. It was during the summer. And he came up outside and parked his big… He had a big Cadillac and parked it and came to the window and tried to get Willie to come outside. And the people said, “No, he ain’t coming outside. He got to load that rotisserie with the ribs because they was all waiting for ribs and chicken. And after he put the last spit on, then he said, “I’m going to see what he want.” And that’s when he got the Bishop Townsend. And that same year… Yeah, it had to be in ’68 or either early part of ’69 when he passed.
Jeannette Eason:
I’m trying to think who could… I even asked who would be closer to him. Because Barbara and them, they church had done left him. I don’t know nobody else because the other girls that was in Philly, they done passed on.
Robert Stone:
Oh, there might be somebody there in the church in Philadelphia that might know.
Jeannette Eason:
Uh-huh (affirmative). The one that’s right there on Cecil B Moore and 25th street.
Robert Stone:
I was writing that down in Philadelphia. So that’s somebody that goes there might know about Lockley. That was his church.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. I’m wondering if the Pillar and Ground of Truth right there where you went out from Silver Springs that day. You remember we was kind of late getting it to you?
Robert Stone:
Oh yeah, right.
Jeannette Eason:
Somebody that should knew about it.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. I can find somebody that knows. I’d love to get a picture of Lockley too. Of course, what I’d really like is a picture of that Gospel Feast Party band. But anyhow… Oh, by the way, I might have… I’m hopeful that I might be getting some information on that, on who I think was the Hawaiian guy that Troman took lessons from. Well, I got my fingers crossed. There’s a guy that collected a bunch of stuff. And I’ve been told this guy in England, if you can believe it, told me that he thinks that stuff might be available. He’s going to get back to me in a couple of days.
Jeannette Eason:
Well, you stay busy, that’s all I can say.
Robert Stone:
Well, I’m trying to wrap all this up. See, I’m working on this book full time from now to the end of March, but I need to knock stuff out, need to make some pages, as we say. So if Lockley died in ’69, was that the end of Willie’s playing for anything for the House of God?
Jeannette Eason:
Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
Okay.
Jeannette Eason:
See, he had most of his churches. He had one of his main things, he had bought a college there in, I think it was South Carolina that went under. And over here in Daytona, he had his boats and his home and everything. And I don’t know, they said they seized that because of the taxes wasn’t paid on it.
Robert Stone:
So Lockley had a home in Daytona?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
I think he was born in Sarasota, I believe.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
And maybe even buried there. I don’t know. Is that… Do you think that’s right?
Jeannette Eason:
I don’t think he was buried there unless they sent the body back from Philly because the new wife he had got, she died before he did. So when I came… Elder Pasco. Darn it. That was her name.
Robert Stone:
What was her name?
Jeannette Eason:
Elder Pasco. Because she was a minister too.
Robert Stone:
Oh, Elder Pasco?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, that’s funny how things come to you.
Robert Stone:
So, what I’m trying to… What most of this is about is that trying to just nail down to Willie’s musical activity. So when you were in there with the restaurant business and all that, you were running the restaurant business?
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
He was collecting the rents and taking care of maintenance and stuff on the rental properties. And then he played music with Roosevelt Eberhardt. He was his partner. Now, besides doing programs and stuff at churches, where they doing stuff on the streets then?
Jeannette Eason:
They was doing mostly on the streets.
Robert Stone:
Mostly on the streets.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. He played at one of his cousin churches here in Brooklyn, a young minister. Oh, God. Gates Avenue, it was a church there. He played in churches, but he would… Like I said, Friday and Saturday and Sunday, him and Roosevelt, that was their days off to singing and then the movies. It’s just so funny.
Robert Stone:
Singing and movies.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right. Nothing but cowboy pictures though. Yeah. They loved they cowboy pictures. It’s something about The Seven, the Clint Eastwood and… Oh, it go way back. Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Okay. Well, that’s interesting. Because I just assumed that he was all wrapped up with the restaurant and stuff and he wasn’t playing much, but he went on well into the ’60s. [crosstalk 00:21:43] Now, after Lockley died, did he still play on the street corners?
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. And not only that, that’s when he went to Gethsemane and for 13 years he played all through Jersey city where he had his, I think it was a 25th anniversary.
Robert Stone:
40th.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
Yeah. Because I’ve got a copy of that thing. I’m looking at it right here at the Zion Baptist church. That was 1979.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. So he still performed. We even drove down, some lady out of West Philly, we even drove down in Maryland to a church where she went. And it was a one way bridge. You had to stay on one side and let the cars come… Way out in the country. I tell you, it’s just a joy thinking about the things that he did just to get where he was going.
Robert Stone:
Now on this, what I have is you lent it to me and I made a picture of the ticket from the, from his 40th anniversary. So he performed at that.
Jeannette Eason:
Right.
Robert Stone:
And then it also lists the… Hang on a second. That’s the song-
Jeannette Eason:
Is the Eason Singers on there?
Robert Stone:
Yes, that’s what I was just going to ask you about.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah. Well the same one that made that song called Bright here for the funeral and said, “This is for uncle Willie.” He was singing on that program and he had his wife and his wife sang with her sister on there. He also had… Let’s go back to Bishop… The one that gave the church to Willie. Oh, Townsend. Townsend group was on there. And he had about close to 12 or 13 people in that choir.
Robert Stone:
Was that the Mighty Bethel Specials?
Jeannette Eason:
Right. That boy could beat that organ, a piano, either one. And then the Eason Henry Kids sang on that program.
Robert Stone:
Was that the Eason Singers?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
So that was the Eason Singers?
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Robert Stone:
They were Henry’s kids.
Jeannette Eason:
And Carl would say… His would say, if it’s on there, Carl Bright. I don’t know if that’s on there.
Robert Stone:
No there’ Brother Charlie Story and his all stars. Then the Mighty Bethel Specials. Thomas Senior James.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, Thomas Senior.
Robert Stone:
Who she was related, right?
Jeannette Eason:
No, she just… Her and Leroy used to sing together. They used to have a little group and then her daughter joined. And that girl could really sing. She remind you… Who’s the woman comes from Jacksonville? She didn’t need no mic.
Robert Stone:
Oh, you mean Katie [Jackson]?
Jeannette Eason:
Katie.
Robert Stone:
Yes, she comes from Baltimore. Yeah, right. I know Katie doesn’t need a microphone.
Jeannette Eason:
No, no.
Robert Stone:
And Evangelist Adams. Okay. Well, so after Lockley died, Willie continued to play on the streets-
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, he played in Lakeland, New Jersey. That’s where Earline went and joined Adams. And Willie, even went down and played, It’s Her Tears.
Robert Stone:
Well, let’s see. When did Eberhardt die? You remember? That was after you guys left there.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, but… No, Eberhardt died the same year… Let me see now. In November, Sister Nelson died. It was three months apart. Then Bishop died in January or February.
Robert Stone:
Bishop who?
Jeannette Eason:
Nelson. And Alyce died three months behind him and… Okay, ’71. I got it, ’71. It was Henry. No, was Bishop Nelson, Henry and Roosevelt. No, I’m going back. Don’t do that. It was Henry, Roosevelt and Bishop Nelson. They all died during the summer months, 1971. It was my father. That’s who I’m trying thinking about. It was my father, Roosevelt and Henry. Yeah, my father died around June 1st. We buried him on the 12th because they had to wait for all the family to come in. And then Henry died before him. Willie’s brother. Then Roosevelt died after my father. Was all in one summer from the spring right straight through.
Robert Stone:
Wow.
Jeannette Eason:
And Bishop Nelson and Sister Nelson, they passed because we said, Candy was living with us at that particular time and Big Junior, we sent them home, paid the fair home to come to the mother’s funeral.
Robert Stone:
I’m not asking this of course for personal reasons and if you don’t want to tell me, that’s good too. But I’m trying to… One of the things I’m trying to establish is that… We talked about it, I guess, it was yesterday. I think I talked to you every day. Is that, how Willie and you worked yourselves up from your very humble beginnings to being a big success. Did you ever have anything like your net worth? Did you ever?
Jeannette Eason:
My net worth?
Robert Stone:
Yeah. You know, that’s like when you add up all your assets and you say, “Oh, that guy’s worth, $500,000 or $800,000 or a million or whatever.” You never did that?
Jeannette Eason:
No.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, that’s okay. But you had 280-
Jeannette Eason:
It came and went.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, right. You had 280… In a way, it doesn’t mean much because your worth one thing one day and then the next day you’re not.
Jeannette Eason:
That’s right.
Robert Stone:
But you had 280 rental units, is what he told me, apartments or whatever.
Jeannette Eason:
And the thing about it with the rental, like I said, even with the tenants and all, Willie was very easy. And the 20% that he didn’t get along with was 20% that they tried to get over on it.
Robert Stone:
Right.
Jeannette Eason:
But Willie was smart. He got with the dispossession Sheriff downtown, man the man would put him out in five minutes. And that was under the table. He worked his brain. God knows he did.
Robert Stone:
Yeah, well you got to.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah, he worked his brain. He gives the person a… What was it? Three day notice. And the Sheriff would be out there on the third day taking stuff out. They’d ask, ” What? I supposed to go to the fourth day.” He said, “No, darling. It’s three days. Time is up.” And a lot of them-
Robert Stone:
So did Willie collect rent by the week?
Jeannette Eason:
No, in that time, it was the first of the month and the 16th.
Robert Stone:
Every two weeks.
Jeannette Eason:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And another thing is, don’t forget with them big buildings, and one building alone, Atlantic Avenue, $2,500 for- They wouldn’t even last two weeks oil.
Robert Stone:
For what?
Jeannette Eason:
For just the oil- heat.
Robert Stone:
For heating oil. Yeah. Right.
Jeannette Eason:
Yeah.
Robert Stone:
Right. So he had to keep on top of it.
Jeannette Eason:
Oh yeah. Him and Joe Davis.
