Take a trip with Loretta and Otis Redding down the road of drugs, drinking, fighting, stealing and almost killing.
Woman Who Lived Twice
Her Story of "The Late Great" "Otis Redding"By Loretta Williams HandyTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2007 Loretta Williams Handy
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4251-1407-7Contents
Introduction.......................................................................11 Early Childhood (Seaport Town, Mobile, Ala.).....................................42 Growing Up In California.........................................................183 The Return To Alabama, The Adolescent Years......................................224 My First Love, The Courtship.....................................................265 The Tragic Wreck The Aftermath...................................................296 Spritual Awakening At An Early Age...............................................317 The First Marriage...............................................................358 The Temptation And Infidelity....................................................389 The Separation And Return To California, The Rape................................4710 A Walk On The Wildside..........................................................5311 The Return To Mobile And The Reconciliation.....................................5612 The Retaliation And Payback.....................................................5813 The Singing Career/life With New Lovers.........................................7214 On The Road With The Otis Redding Show And Band New Affair......................8115 The Performances of Otis........................................................10316 Back Home Again In Mobile Ala...................................................12917 The Tragedy.....................................................................13918 Recovery & Healing..............................................................14919 Return To Mobile, The Divorce, New Marriage, Finding Christ.....................166Loretta Williams: Discography......................................................189
Chapter One
EARLY CHILDHOOD (SEAPORT TOWN, MOBILE, ALA.)
Here I am, I've made it, finally I've made it, I'm standing here in awe, looking out over the vast audience, wondering in my mind, can this really be me, I hear the sounds of the band, the funky, grounding, grueling sounds of the great Otis Redding band, winding up, waiting for me to make my grand entrance on stage, the great Appollo Theatre at my disposal, I look out over the audience cheering, clapping, calling to me, "it's Loretta from Mobile, Alabama", it's my time, the time I had dreamed about, the time I had longed for, the time I had really prayed for, to become a famous singer, never knowing I'd be here, the star vocalist of the "Otis Redding 28 piece orchestra on stage" New York City bright lights, big city, it's really me, as I walked onto that great big stage which looked like a hundred miles wide to me, and the big spot light flashed swiftly toward me, I felt I had really arrived, as the audience applauded loudly, and the stage announcer announced my grand arrival, I stood there, gazing, with my mind going back to the first day of my life, when life came to me in that cold dingy, little hospital room in a small seaport town, in Alabama, a place called the Mobile, General Hospital, where a little black woman travailing in pain and agony, with fear and trembling, in a room all alone trying to birth her first baby girl. And then, there I was, screaming, hollering, kicking, didn't need no slap on the fanny to start crying or breathing, my lungs were already working properly, very loud and clear, ready for the world and the singing, that would become my career.
Born January 31, 1941 in a small, busy, flourishing seaport town known as Mobile, Alabama on a cold windy winter nite, in a lonely isolated delivery room, a small baby girl and her mother struggled alone desperately to enter into this soon to be found as a strange world. This young mother in agony and pain holding the screaming, raging baby girl between her legs, (by the way) who needed no one to pat her on the fanny to get her to cry or to breathe the breath of life into her lungs but already had it in her, she came out with good lungs and raising hell her mother says: began screaming "nurse", Doctor, somebody please come help me, my baby has already come, help, somebody! And finally she was heard, and was then asked, why did you try to have this baby by yourself? My mom says she just looked at them and asked where were you? So as you can see my life started out rough. I could have died at birth, if my mom hadn't held me with her legs, the concrete floor could have been my fate!
Even though I could have died at birth it seems there was a higher power already guiding my fate. Time went on and I became the pride and joy of Levernon and Lillian Charletta Raymore, a father of West Indies decent, a tall handsome young man, well dressed, starched and pressed to the tee, high yellow in color as they called him, with very light brown piercing, exciting eyes, and a temper that caused him to lose his life at a very early age. My mother of African decent, a black intriguing beauty, small in stature but shrewd and cunning with long jet black, flowing hair that looked like the silkiness of a beautiful most prized horses' mane. She was a real beauty. Although I was somewhat of what you'd call a daddy's little girl, given the name of Loretta Vernell, named after my dad's cousin and him and one of my mother's favorite movie stars, {Loretta Young} of the Loretta Youngs' Show, this actress was my mom's idle, she says when she was pregnant and carrying me in her belly she loved going to the movies to see Loretta Young and she prayed for a baby girl she could name, Loretta.
I was loved by so many people of the family then being the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so I was divided also between two great-grandparents, by the name of Ada, of whom I called grandma Ada, who was my father's mom, who loved me and the spirits very much, and I don't mean the Holy Spirits, and the other on my mom's side was called Martha Eli Simon, whom I called Muh, something short for grandmuther: now she truly loved me also and had an even greater love for the younger set of men, I remember her words being "an old man couldn't tell her nothing but where a young man was at" and I would fall out laughing, she was a character, I guess because she had a very shapely body with the look of a much younger woman, a sexy walk with big beautiful legs, the fellows couldn't resist. {smile}
1 was a very sheltered little girl of which I credit my grandmother, she thought I was top of the line, I was cute, light complexioned, long red hair and very sassy, smart as a whip, she never allowed me to come out and play with other kids of the neighborhood mainly because we lived in a rough housing area called the campground, she felt wasn't too safe. My grandma, Muh, was a very proud picky lady who was an expert seamstress of the city and for this reason she could dress me in a new dress twice a day. She insisted I wore the best of shoes and clothes, she was so picky that she never allowed me to wear nothing but white three strap high top dress shoes every day, and didn't allow a tap of dirt to be on them. She taught me high standards of living although we were a poor family I guess I was always blessed of God. My other grandmother Ada, God rest her soul, on the other hand worked for a very prominent rich white family who lived on one of the most popular and prominent streets of downtown Mobile an old landmark called Government Street which is still called that today. This family...
