Oklahoma Voices: Kenneth Kilgore

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Transcript:

Melba: Good afternoon. Mr. Kilgore. How are you this evening?

Kenneth: I'm just fine.

Melba: I’m really honored that you would have a second session with us for the Oklahoma Voices Centennial project. We, your life is such an is such a significant one for our state. We really needed to have to interview from two different perspectives. And we're so glad that you agreed to accommodate both of the interviewers. I will be asking you some of the questions you might have already answered and then I will go into the line of questioning that will help me with the research. Tell me your name

Kenneth: name. My name is Kenneth Irvin Kilgore

Melba: And your birthday

Kenneth: January 26, 1947

Melba: And our relationship

Kenneth: We have been friends for quite a while

Melba: And where we are?

Kenneth: We're in Ralph Ellison library

Melba: And where were you born?

Kenneth: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma University Hospital

Melba: Where did you grow up?

Kenneth: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,

Melba: What was it like?

Kenneth: It was it was exciting. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a mother and the father who passed when I was 16 and being the youngest child of all of my mother and father's children. I was unusually fortunate to receive all of their love and attention, so I was very special. I often heard that my mother Let me get away with more than she did the older children and that didn't mean one thing to me because I didn't know what they got away with

Melba: You couldn’t relate to what they were talking about. You were just enjoying a good life.

Kenneth: Because I felt as though she was still quite strict on me, but I have the best of all worlds. I had an exciting church that pushed you to achieve education was always inter woven into the threads of our existence at church. I remember hearing pastor Jackson say the most the most cutting into a young man. He was Going to school at Bishop college and he called and told Pastor Jackson that he had been called to Pastor a church. And that he was considering quitting school so he could pastor that church and he asked pastor Jackson what he thought about it and pastor Jackson said to him “Well, you do realize You don't know about the last a lifetime, you know that and if I were you. I wouldn't do that because you going to mess that church up” and he paid him no attention and sure enough his time with that church was not long. So I had keep people that taught me valuable life lessons from many different aspects. I had a mother that well, I was surrounded by people who say things like they could peep through muddy water and spot dry land. Meaning you don't you no. No, you don't fool me. You're not getting away with things. I remember practicing one time and I was not playing anything but I just figured my mother was so dumb. She didn't know what I was doing. So I was writing a song I was playing and of course as all young children taking lessons music everything we played was in C. And so I was romping up and down. The keys and thought I was really impressive and so my mother said that Kenneth, are you practicing your lesson? Yes, ma'am. Mom. She's so I figured okay. I really got her fooled. So I became even more inventive and she said can I help me tell you something? I may not know what music is but I know what music isn't. And that isn't music that you're playing. So I was surrounded by people. That would not allow me to get away with any of my antics. And so that is My Philosophy with children.

Kenneth: My parents didn't let me get away with it. So why should I let these kids get away with it. I'm not such a bad person.

Melba: Well, we would have to talk to your students to see.

Kenneth: Oh don’t talk to them.

Melba: We're in this interview.

Kenneth: Wait, but I will say this I will say this in all sincerity. I had a very nice thing happen to me about two months ago. I taught at Herald Elementary School out on Southwest 29th. When I first finished college and came back in, in those days, Oklahoma City Public Schools were trying to figure out how they were going to satisfy integration that was in the year of Judge Bohannon and all of his decrees that he placed on us and one of the first thing that was done they would take black teachers and plant them in predominantly white schools and they would take white teachers and plant them in predominantly black schools. So I started there in January.

Melba: In the 60’s?

Kenneth: Yes. I started in January ‘69 actually, I finished school in December of ‘68 came back home and by the end of January I was teaching and I remember several things that happened. I remember turning the corner and running into a white mother and she wasn't expecting me and with my dark-hue and as we bumped Into each other she went “oh my God. Oh, you must be” I said, I'm Mr. Kilgore what you are the first yes. I'm the first black one here, things were quite funny, but I taught there for three years about two months ago. I was home on a Saturday and a man called and asked me are you Kenneth Kilgore? Yes I am, Did you used to teach at Herald Elementary School? Yes I did and he said I actually don't remember his name. He said but I am now quite an adult and I don’t remember how old he said he was a 40-something something like that. He said but I have wanted to find you for many years and to tell you that you changed my life. That I was heading in the wrong direction and even in the sixth grade and you were the person that turned me around and he said I just wanted to go on record by saying thank you, and he said I don't live in Oklahoma City anymore. And I just took a chance I said the thought came and I got a call operator they gave me your name and he said if I'm ever back in Oklahoma City. Can I take you to lunch or dinner? And I said sure but that has stayed with me and I often think about the scriptures that talks about, It's so seldom. So few people ever come back to say thank you, and that really meant a lot for me it was encouraging and it said to me don't sway from the method that what you do because you are not required. We are not required to see instant results. But when you hear tell that good things did occur you although you may not see it. Just trust God to know. It is going to happen.

Melba: That's really true. That's really true. And you never know how your work affects other people

Kenneth: That's right. That's right.

Melba: I would like for you to make sure you, you talked a little bit about your mother, but I'd like to make sure that in my interview you do name both of your parents and your brothers and sisters. You know, I’d like for you to take this time and do that.

Kenneth: Okay

Melba: We may have already done that but I need that in my interview.

Kenneth: Our family was unique in that my father was married, his first wife and he had children by that lady and she died, those children were. HDL Kilgore, Hercules Kilgore Chapman, Glendora Kilgore, Bernestein Kilgore, Lenny May Kilgore.

Kenneth: There was one son who’s name was NL who drowned early in his life. I did not know him.

Kenneth: Then my mother was married to her first husband, and he died. My father's name. Leonard Kilgore.

Melba: Okay

Kenneth: and my mother was married to her first husband and he passed

Melba: His name?

Kenneth: Osmond Lewis.

Melba: Your Mother’s name?

Kenneth: Lola Peters Kilgore, and those brothers and sisters that I inherited from my mother's first marriage are Louise Peters. Well Louise Lewis then Nettie Lewis, Carl Lewis, Osmond Lewis Jr. Did I say Carl ?

Melba: Yes, you said that I think ok

Kenneth: But of my mother and father's marriage, I'm an only child.

Melba: That's what they were trying to tell you.

Kenneth: Stop laughing.

Melba: You did have the best of both worlds. You are an only child and the baby of the family.

Kenneth: I’m no fool I know when I have a good thing.

Melba: You had both of your pockets full. I had to let you tell us, that was good. Give me your schools that you actually attended, started in preschool, up to we know that you went to school and in Texas for your undergraduate degree, but we want you to just name them in succession.

Kenneth: Higher education.

Melba: no start in the elementary because I want to preserve that elementary.

Kenneth: I started at Richardson's daycare center out on Bryant with Mrs. Richardson and her daughter Laquetta. We are close to the same age. We were all there around the same, you know growing up together from there I went to.

Melba: They called her mama Richardson, Let’s preserve her day care.

Kenneth: Yes, Yes from there. I attended Page school for one day.

Melba: Well I was at Paige, let’s let you leave in Page explain that in your interview.

Kenneth: When my parents were in the process of buying their first home and it so happened that everything was completed. That and that first day I attended it was all completed and we the next day we moved to a permanent home that first home the home where I really grew up and that I was five or five and a half years old then. When I was born I lived at on the corner of 4th and Kate and then we moved on Third and Philip straight down the street from St. John. That's because that's why I went to Paige, but then we finally bought at 420 North Missouri. And that's where I spent most of my time. I attended Dunbar Elementary School. I went to Moon when it was a junior high school. It was the old Douglas on sixth and High I went there one year and then I was in that one class. That had ninth grade at Douglas High School. So I went to Douglas in 1961 and finished 65. Then I went to Bishop College in Dallas, Texas and finished with a Bachelor of Science in education. Emphasis was on history and music. And then many years transpired and I taught school and all the stuff that we will talk about later and then finally around 95, 96 something like that. I decided that I wanted to go back to school. And so I enrolled at Langston University in their master's program and finished with a master's in urban education and from there in 2002 I enrolled at Oklahoma State University and the education department and I am completing the dissertation on the doctorate degree in education, doctor of Education degree in educational Administration. I finished all the classwork. On Monday at 3:00. I will defend my proposal of my dissertation.

Melba: What is the name of your dissertation?

Kenneth: I am looking at homeschooling, homeschoolers have said that the three main reasons why the parents choose to homeschool are in three significant areas. First area is school safety. They say that the public school does not provide adequate safety. The second area is in the area of morality and religion and they say that that is not being done. And the last area was an academic achievement and academic training. On the other side much has been said by homeschoolers about the failure of public school. My research is primarily to give homes, give Public School administrators the opportunity to explain their perception of home schools and what happens to children that are homeschooled.

Melba: What an interesting topic which I must say, it does really surprise me that you will come up with something like that. That's a creative approach, combines your Urban knowledge your personal experience and all of the educational and Educators that have been in and out of your life forever. I would like to go back to some of the time that you spent at Douglass High School where I first met you and I can remember you being involved in music and you've always been friends with the McKinney family, but just been just like family would have been my family and in my family and and I want you to try to help us to remember some of the contributions made by some of the music people that were early involved. I would like for you to focus on those people at Douglas and music and your observations and your interaction with them.

Kenneth: Ok of course at the top of the list for me would be as we all knew him Leroy Jerome Hicks. When I entered Douglas I heard of the famous Hicks and they told such horrible stories about this man. The one thing I knew was that I never ever wanted to be within 20 feet of him for any reason whatsoever. So in 61, I did not go near the music room and 1962 and 1963 I didn't. I did not come to where Hicks was until my sophomore year And I came trembling. I don't really remember how I got in there and he did not let me down. He was one of the, he screamed at some person. I never will forget one of my dearest friends. And in fact, who is now also now is Dr. Katy Perry that is on my dissertation committee at OSU. We were in choir. and we were singing something and for some reason she was talking or something and he cut the choir off and he said Katy Perry stand up, please. Start singing it measures so and so and he knew that it was impossible to start singing at that major. And so Katie just stood there and she didn't say anything and he said sit down you look so damn stupid. Well, if as if I wasn't already afraid enough and to see him too and I thought Oh God. Please don't let him ever, ever call my name but  it evolved into a wonderful relationship. I was the first president of what he created was called The Douglas High School concert choir. Yes. And from there. We became lifelong friends Through the Years while I was in college. In fact, he introduced me. to Dr. J. Harris Wilson who was called music director at Bishop college, and Dr. Wilson gave me a scholarship to attend Bishop College. Our relationship grew. Often times he would say Kenneth you have finished college. Now. You don't have to call me. Mr. Hicks. Call me Leroy and honestly Melba I tried I really honestly tried I would practice it saying Leroy but when I would get with him, it just would not roll out of my mouth. I would go and I said listen, it's not working Okay, for me and calling you Leroy is not going to happen? So we’re go to remain, I'm Kenneth you Mr. Hicks and well, so when I organized the ambassador choir Then our relationship became he joined my staff as one of the assistant directors of the ambassador's choir. And from there we remained friends until the day he died. And if I were to say anything about Leroy Hicks he probably his greatest asset was taking nothing and making something out of it. I don't understand choir directors today in high school that say we don't have anybody that wants to sing anymore. Well, I can remember Mr. Hicks walking the halls and maybe as he was he would be walking beside someone and maybe they would hum something and he would say come with me and he would take them to the office and say to one of the assistant principals. Change his schedule. He wants to be in choir and the person would say I didn't tell you that. Yes, you did. He really wants to be in choir and so by the end of the year, we had a choir of close to 300 people and some of them could sing. Some of them couldn't he would always say he would put handsome men and cute women on the front row. He said you always have some people in the choir just for beauty. You don't want to have an entire choir ugly people that nobody will pay you attention and I have tried to carry that on in my church choir. You don't want ugly people on the front row. You want people to believe that God is working and he created some beautiful people. And so that was Leroy Hicks. He planted the seed in us that made us appreciate all types of music there was nothing that was too challenging or gutsy for us to do we did spirituals, we did gospel, we did the classics, we did Jazz, all of those things and I'm so glad that I was the benefit of that music education because when I went went to Dallas, a much larger city, a much older city than Oklahoma City whose culture had expanded to greater realms than Oklahoma City had, I was right at home. The only thing that I never could just really get excited about was Opera, I tried and I really wanted to but Opera would just put me to sleep. And so I finally decided if I was not going to embarrass myself with unnecessary snoring. It was no point in me going to Opera but I appreciate people that do go to the Opera. That was Leroy Hicks and then I would say. There was Mr. Francisco and Mr. Perry. I did not know a lot about the band people because you know band folk and choir people, we have different genre. We didn't mix too much. It was like water and oil. We tolerated each other but the choir people always thought that they were a greater form then the orchestra band people and vice versa, but they produced. Mr. Perry and Mr. Francisco also had the art of attracting people, of finding those that had potential. Many of the students did not have horns when they came into it but they found them. Mr. Francisco's wife Maureen Francisco. Little do people know that she was one of the first African-Americans to play in the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra at that time. There was a group of musicians called the Baton and keyboard club and every year they would present their big event was to present the Messiah and they would bring many entities together. They would bring the high school choir of Douglas and combine that with voices from the community and they would present the Messiah sometimes it was with Orchestra and I marveled when that happened because we little did we know that we had people living right in our community that played these instruments that read music these folks implanted in my mind to keep studying music, it’s wonderful to have an ear and can sit there and pick out something but it's also wonderful that when a piece of music is put before you that you can adequately read it and not embarrass yourself by having to say, I'm sorry. what is it? I can't play that. There was June McKinney, June was that other musician that I was afraid of because she was so mysterious. She was quiet and she never said anything and she would kind of struggle to the piano and then would slay you with her ability to play. I remember when she was finishing June had children early in life so many children in so much so that she did not actually get a degree early in life. But I remember after her children were all born and doing well enough. She went to school at OCU and they marveled, all the professor's marveled at her about her natural ability. And I remember her talking about how it was during a theory class in OCU that destroyed a great deal of her musicianship. She said because up to that point I never worried about the chord structure that I play. I just played where God led me she said but after taking this Theory class then I couldn't get to what God gave me for trying to analyze what it was I was playing and she said that did not help her very much, I went through the period of her graduating. A lot of people don't know that I think it's Thelonius Monk was a great fan of June's and several of them came through Oklahoma City and offered her position on top of position to quit whatever she was doing mainly was providing a home for her husband and her children to travel throughout the country and perform, but she never did that June was at home playing jazz. She was just as at home playing the classical. She was phenomenal. Then there was Mrs. Ray, Freddie Ray Cook. Freddie Ray Cooper. I first met Mrs. Cooper when I was in Middle School, then it was called Junior High School. And I was going to my class one day. I must have been in the seventh or eighth grade and I heard this heavenly sound coming from the auditorium and I didn't know what it was. But I knew as a child I had never ever been moved by anything so beautiful in all of my life. And when I went in there. Miss Freddie Ray was known for developing girls Glee club's. Yeah and her girls Glee Club was singing Oh, Holy Lord Almighty. And it actually sounded like the Angelic chorus. And I think that was what turned me against women's groups because I can't get them to sound like Miss Freddy Coppers women’s glee club then I don't want them near me that is my point of reference. Hmm what else can I think of.

Melba: Dubose

Kenneth: Leonardo Dubose, Leonardo Dubose was the person that could do anything he could direct, he could sing, he can play all of the women just went ewie, ewie because Leonardo is because he was he is a very handsome person a very warm person and probably the most outstanding thing about Leonardo is that he knows that he knows and he knows what he knows and he is not going to lower his standards to make you feel happy because you don't know and I appreciate that about Leonardo Dubose. He was known for working with Mrs. Minny (?) Anderson in the early years and his work with church choirs. He was also a member of the baton and keyboard club and often was one of the solos from the Messiah he was called on the things of that nature. Oklahoma is full of fine well trained musicians and the baton and keyboard club was a recipient of many of them in Oklahoma City. That was the late William Roche. That was Reverend Perry's sister Miss Begley, Miss Begley had taught school and for years was minister of music or choir director at Tabernacle Baptist Church. There was a lady and I think her name was Mrs. Hawkins, but she was probably one of the first professionally trained organists. Everyone knew her as Tootsie Hawkins and she played for years at Calvary Baptist Church. They were one of the first to have, and Tabernacle to have pipe or actually have pipe organs, many other churches had replicas electronic, but they actually, she was known for her ability to play an organ and play it correctly. I remember someone, the baton and keyboard Club joking that someone came to see, I think it was Marveen Keaton who taught me organ.

Melba: I wanted to know who taught you the organ.

Kenneth: They came in It said they looked and saw that she was using both of her feet. And since they laughed and said I thought she knew what she was doing. She can't even play with one foot she had to use both of them. But Marveen Keaton, her father Oscar Jenkins was in the early days of music that he had of the choirs here and formed, small groups of, a lot of people don't know about Oklahoma and its rich choral history. We had the Evelyn LaRue Pittman who had first the Evelyn Pittman singers and then later, she also had embedded and surrounded her Evan Pittman singers with the interdenominational chorus. And they were known to, she would rent what we now know as Civic Center but then it was called the Municipal Auditorium. Yes, and they would stage the most wonderful concerts. I remember as a child going there and when the concert was over I was so short I couldn't see. There were adults were all around me and someone's they said, It's snowing outside and someone said yes, it's black snow and I was so excited to see this black snow. I just almost tore away from my mother's hand needless to say that was not the best thing to do to little Kilgore not if you want to live to the dawning of another day, but when I finally got outside I experienced one of the worst let down. Because it was not Black snow and to this day, I wonder what they were actually talking about. Sometimes I thought maybe maybe they were talking about there was so many people outside that it looked like it was snowing black people it was snowing but it was by no means black. Evelyn Pittman wrote so many things. Just this past Saturday we did one of her famous numbers that she composed and that's Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham. She actually wrote that song for her brother Ike Kimbrough and he was known for performing that throughout the country with her Ms. Pitman went on to write plays and she took the Pitman singers took to the Caribbean islands to China. She taught for years in White Plains New York, and I upon retiring she came back to Oklahoma City and remained here and was quite active until her health began to fail.

Melba: Did you have any interaction with the Sheffield sister’s?

Kenneth: Yes, I first knew their dad Leslie who was a member of our church at Saint John. I knew of him. Mr. Sheffield was a very quiet person that chose he would come to church every Sunday, but he did not care to participate. Since then I have become close friends with both of his daughters Debbie Sheffield and I can't think of the other one’s name.

Melba: The middle one

Kenneth: Umm..Ellen. They are both quite accomplished. Debbie is quite a composer in her own right and Debbie wrote a song when in high school that received national acclaim through Leroy Hicks, she is gone on some of her numbers have been introduced on the national level through the Gospel Music Workshop of America. They both have trained choirs and worked with churches as ministers and music.

Melba: Did you have an opportunity to know or experience Charlie Christian during his lifetime?

Kenneth: No, I did not. I've heard of him, but I know very, very little about him.

Melba: I would like to not close this interview without being able to preserve the history of the ambassador's. Exactly where was it organized? You name the key organizers of the ambassadors.

Kenneth: In 1979 St. John had just moved across town from second and Phillip Street to our location now at 5700 North Kelly. That was in June of 1979. During the summer I thought about beginning to plan for Christmas. I knew that I wanted to do something, a wonderful Christmas program. And of course, I begin to think about we I'd like for us to do the Messiah. and then I have the challenge was how do I find the voices at Saint John to sing this because the average African-American church choir would find it difficult I will say to sing all of the Christmas section of Handel's Messiah. It is challenging to any choir, but definitely to people who’s voice lends itself more to gospel music? So I began to identify members of St. John who had already performed Messiah or voices that I thought could learn it and I think I came up with about 42 or 44 people and so on Christmas Eve of 1979 we gave our first performance. Our name then was the Ambassador's of Faith concert choir. I was the founder and director. June McKinney was a played, Marvin Keaton played, my former College piano instructor Dr. John Meeks. He came and played and that was how we started. We started as a portion of the music department of St. John each year as we would do a concert we did it, we did a Christmas, we did an Easter. And more people would come and they came from other churches and they would say, you know, I used to sing that kind of music in college and I haven't been asked to but I sure would like to do it again. Can I join? And I knew what I was doing, but I did it anyway and that was allowed people to sing that we're not members of the church. And I thought all was well until when at St. John the church policy says and in order to be funded by through the church budget, all of your folks must be members. So our pastor Jackson called me and one day I had requested some wonderful amount for something I wanted to do and he looked at me and he said I'm sure you know that we're not going to be able to keep putting money in this choir and I thought that was the most cruel thing that he could say to me and and I was quite angry with him for quite a long time, but I had enough sense to contain my anger and I let him know it because he also signed my check. And so we began to talk to people and so we came out from the umbrella of Saint John and became a community choir. Which has proven to be the best thing that ever happened to us. The first thing we did was to change our name because we wanted to move into the areas that will allow us to do grants to get money to see our dreams become reality. And from there we changed our name to the Ambassador's concert choir. By 83 or 84 we had started to develop a board of directors that took some of the responsibility for me. I was trying to do it all by myself and it is just evolved from that to we have a finance department, we have the artistic department and we are continuously working to fine-tune our board of directors to strengthen the board of directors to train them in the area of what board of directors should do and that's raise money for you know, that's their chief responsibility. And that's how we evolved and in 2009, we will be 30 years old. We have God has been good to us. And I thank him. We open every choir rehearsal with, although we are Community organization, we open every choir rehearsal with prayer. We close every choir rehearsal with asking that anybody have any prayer requests and we're never so busy are so upset that we don't take time for that and then we move from we move from prayer requests, to does anybody have a praise report? And I found we have such a mixture of cultures. But the one thing that has, music has been that thread and the good and God's goodness has been that thread when we changed our names we said that we can remove Christ from our name without ever removing him from our hearts. And that is the thread music is a thing and so many of the people that join, there is a fellow that joined named Jim Henline, Jim Henline is a Caucasian. He is probably one of the most well-known classical singers in Oklahoma's history, and he said someone invited him to come to Ambassador’s one night when he walked in I thought oh my God, that's Jim Henline. What on Earth is he doing here? It scared me to death and he walked, he walked in and he said and I said why are you here? And he said well Kenneth, I just came to listen to you guys. And so okay. So we went on through and later on. Jim said he left that night and he said he was driving and said all that week, he said he couldn't understand why he was so excited about next Sunday coming when he come back to Ambassador rehearsal again. He did that for two or three more times and finally he joined us. Well around that time his mother's health began to fail. And she passed and at his mother's funeral every bass that was a member of the choir was at his mother's funeral and when he walked in and saw us he just began to cry, he said you, you guys are so wonderful and he said I don't know why God sent me to the ambassador's but I'm so glad he did and so many of the choir Members have unique stories about choir why they’re there. We have a lady that is a recovering alcoholic that has been with Alcoholic Anonymous now and every year she'll announces, “I'm in my 12th year,” and I'm so thankful and she talks about how the ambassador's helped her through that period. And there are numerous stories within the choir that just says that we are more than just a choir, that we are a family, we care. I remember we did a concert with Canterbury and the night of the first rehearsal one of our choir members home burned completely down. And Canterbury heard about this happening and that night. They took up over three thousand dollars to give she and her family to help them and then at the concert, they all brought clothing and food and stuff. There was a fellow that owned a grocery store and he gave her access to come in and get food. Those are the things that are interwoven into the ambassador's history that causes us to look to God and to be thankful that there's never been a time that, in so many times we walk on the stage feeling, “We don't know this music’” but somehow God stands up and makes the rough places playing the number we did Saturday night that Sandy directed. We just knew disaster was going to come from that number, but as the song says somehow we muddle through.

Melba: Mr. Kilgore I cannot possibly end this interview without giving you a chance to tell the people listening a little bit about the exquisite performance at Rose that you did for the Centennial with Ernestine Dillard and with Linda Twine, world renowned conductor. I just thought I had died and gone to heaven but I cannot end this interview without you sharing your reflections of that and how that came about.

Kenneth: Well, I have to thank Norma Noble for bringing Linda Twine and actually Ernestine Dillard to my attention for several years. Well, I met Ernestine Dillard for the first time when she was brought to Oklahoma City to sing during the memorial service during the bombing, after the bombing of the Alfred Murrah building. Well after that Norma began to talk about Linda Twine from Muskogee, well, you know she is from Muskogee. Yes, and they actually finished school together and she said and we talked about, oh can we, we need to do something with Linda Twine? Well then and I'm thinking what can we do with Linda Twine and I’m thinking what can we do with Linda Twine and we'd kind of push it to the side and but Norma being her ever pushy self, and so things just began to work out we found out that Linda who is a graduate of Oklahoma City University was being inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame on the Thursday night before Saturday, November 10th. And so we said well if we're ever going to get her here now is the time. And so we begin to look at funding. And we said well, maybe let's tie it in with the Centennial. So we tied it in with the Centennial and they gave us a handsome grant, approved a handsome grant to help us defray some of the costs and then it just began to blossom as we begin to talk and Linda, her mind never stops working, and every week she would send more and more music and we would learn that, and the next week she would send more and I said that wait a minute. I mean even the Sunday before the concert she’s still sending me, I'm not even opening that pack because we she will be sending music on the 10th that we would still have to learn but she's just that type of person, and so many of the things we did she wrote the arrangements of, and so we began to plan and then she said well, I've got some friends that perform. Now Linda Twine is the music director for The Color Purple in New York City. Well, nobody's doing anything now in New York City because of the strike is going on, but she is the music director and she began to bring and she brought with her performers from The Color Purple and from the Broadway stage to join us. And that's why it was called Linda Twine the Ambassadors and friends and it proved to be one of the most unique experiences we've ever had we are putting together. We will have a CD and a DVD of the performance and if you're interested call the office Church office.

Melba: Okay without a doubt. I will be one of the callers and one of those people that constantly support the choir. I Wish I had more to be able to do. I've been retired, but I had to make this contribution. I knew I could do this.

Kenneth: Thank you

Melba: I want to personally thank you publicly for the manner of which you assisted the family of June McKinney at the end of her life because you pulled those McKinney’s together and grouped them in such an honor such and such and such a way. The same way you talk to me about Mr. Hicks you organize them by calling her, Mrs. McKinney, and you set the stage and I thank you for that, on behalf of this project. The Oklahoma voices wouldn't be complete without the voice of my Kenneth Kilgore. Thank you. Thank you for interviewing with the Oklahoma voices.

Kenneth: Thank you so much.

Melba: Thank you.