Sylvester Stewart Stone

“In the story before my story, F. L. Haynes, Fred to those who knew him, went to Denton, Texas to set up the St. Andrew Church of God in Christ. The Church of God in Christ was a Pentecostal denomination with roots in Tennessee, only a few decades old at that point but gaining steam.”

“Fred’s family included two girls named Alpha and Omega. In Fred’s church, Alpha met a man named K.C. Stewart. Alpha and K.C. married in 1933 and brought a daughter, Loretta, into the world the following year. For a while that was the family, the three of them. Then, on March 15, 1943, a fourth face appeared. That was Sylvester Stewart. That was me.”

“We sang at home and then we sang in church. We all sang together but sometimes one of us would get a solo. I was put in front of the congregation to perform when I was only five or six. My mother said that I really came alive in front of a crowd. More than that: If they didn’t respond I would cry. Once, I was up there, singing, feeding off the audience, hearing their shouts and applause, when pieces of the crowd broke off and women started running down the aisle, holding on to their hats, still shouting. Now I see that they were feeling the spirit in the song calling them toward the stage. Back then, I thought they were coming to grab me. I turned around, jumped off the table, and started running for my life.”

“Another year, during the class spelling bee, I was half-watching the teacher at the blackboard and agreeing–black, bored–when another boy went up to write down the names of the contestants. He spelled my name wrong: ‘Slyvester.’ Everyone started laughing but I took a closer look. Sly: Not bad. The correct order of letters may be better, but a reversal isn’t always worse.”

[condensed from the 12-15-2023 review of Sly’s book
[image in upper left corner] by delanceyplace.com]