Description:
Keely Covell Smith talks about her life and her family in Oklahoma City.
Transcript:
Interviewee: Keely Covell Smith
Interviewer: Female Interviewer, possibly Melba Holt
Interview Date: August 24, 2007
Interview Location:
Female Interviewer: Thank you for agreeing to participate in the Centennial Oklahoma Voices Project by interviewing with us. Tell me your name. You’re going to have to speak up. Tell me your name.
Keely Covell Smith: Keely Covell Smith.
FI: Your birthdate?
KCS: 6/22/61.
FI: And our relationship?
KCS: We’re friends.
FI: Where are we, Keely?
KCS: We’re here at the new Oklahoma City Downtown Library, and it’s beautiful.
FI: When and where were you born?
KCS: I was born June 22, 1961 here in Oklahoma City.
FI: Where’d you grow up?
KCS: I grew up, the early part of my life, on the east side of Oklahoma City, at 1604 NE (unintelligible), and then later moved to the south side, which was Kerr Village.
FI: What was it like when you were growing up on the east side and in Kerr Village? I used to teach at a school near Kerr Village.
KCS: It was pretty much the quiet, family-oriented neighborhood. I grew up where the nuns, the sisters at Saint Joseph Group Home, would come through our neighborhood door-to-door, also walk down the streets, and talk with us and see how the kids in the neighborhood were doing, but me, I think I was kind of somewhat more different. They had taken more liking to me where they would come to my home to visit with my mom. I remember inviting them. They were my first guests that I had as a child and came to my home. My mother was baking pies in the kitchen and was startled when she turned around in the kitchen and saw two nuns standing there in the kitchen. [FI clears throat] Anyway, it was pretty nice childhood growing up.
FI: What were your parents’ names?
KCS: Billie and Charles Smith.
FI: What were your parents like?
KCS: My father worked at Trans-Con Trucking Company over on Southeast 15th for years, so my father was never at home. He was always working. If he was at home, he would be fishing. He loved to fish. My mother was a homemaker, so that’s about what I remember growing up, that my mom was always there providing us with the home. The environment was well kept up.
FI: Where did they come from? Where did your parents come from?
KCS: My mother was born and raised here, or I would say, Roy City, Texas is where she originated from, was Roy City, Texas. My father’s family came from Garland, Texas and up through De Kalb, Texas so I don’t know if you’ve heard of Garland, Texas. That’s kind of where my family originated from, coming here to Oklahoma City.
FI: How was your relationship with your parents, Keely?
KCS: My relationship with my father, as I grew up, we moved from the east side to the south side, where my mother and father separated. They didn’t divorce. They remained married until I was about 16 years old, but my father remained still the provider as far as seeing to what would be called payday every Friday. My father would bring the allowance, and was still able to communicate with my mom, still communicated with us to make sure that we watched the news, prayed before we went to bed, all of the things that you would look up to a father to ask the right questions to make you feel like even thought he was absent, he was still present. My mom was a mother that believed in don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. Be home before the sun goes down. My mother was very strict. I just came from a strict family, and you know when you come from a strict family, your mother has a tendency to keep up with your going and your coming so I would say that it was a good relationship.
FI: What was your grandparents’ names?
KCS: My grandfather was Jack Arthur.
FI: Was that your mother or your father?
KCS: That’s my mother’s father, is Jack Arthur. My grandmother, which is my grandfather’s mother, is Ada Fox.
FI: Was that your great-grandmother?
KCS: My great-grandmother.
FI: Okay, so you still have your great-grandmother. That’s good.
KCS: My great-great grandmother. I’m sorry. She’s deceased.
FI: Did you know her name?
KCS: Her name was Ada Fox Arthur. She and Clara Luper’s mother were sisters. Growing up in that family was very exciting and very interesting. Then on my father’s side of the family, Monroe is my grandfather’s name. He’s deceased. My great-great grandmother, which is my father’s mother, her name was Lily, Lily Smith. She’s deceased. They all, like I said, came from Garland, Texas.
FI: Do you remember any stories concerning your family? You mentioned that Clara Luper was one of your relatives. Do you remember any stories concerning her that comes from your childhood?
KCS: The stories, the experiences that I experienced growing up being around Clara Luper is when she started the Miss Oklahoma pageant. Seeing one of my sisters, siblings, be a part of that.
FI: Which one?
KCS: Lynneil.
FI: Okay, the one I met.
KCS: That was quite interesting. Growing up into that and seeing how she groomed the young ladies and the process they had to go through was always something that I admired out of her.
FI: Well, you love fashion, Keely. That was one of the things I wanted to interview you as, was a designer. You design some of your own fashions and headpieces. [clears throat] They’re striking and very, very elegant, so some of that I can see you having an interest in the pageants. It stuck on you. Let’s talk about one of your other relatives that I had been trying to interview and we started and interview with them a few years ago, and we were distracted. That is Mr. Williams. What is his relation to you and what is his name?
KCS: His name is Portwood Williams. I call him Uncle Portwood. He’s my cousin, but growing up as children, it was more uncles and aunts. Uncle Portwood was a great inspiration, and he still is today. He’d always ask me what’s my story, and the nickname he gave me was Black Fox. He would always ask me before him and my mother would leave town going to pick up merchandise and clothing to bring it back to Oklahoma, he would always ask me what’s my story. He said you have to have a story. That lingered in my mind with those words. What’s your story? Then as I began to grow up in the community, they had C-CAP here in Oklahoma City back in the ‘70s. C-CAP was government funding for the community, so they had a pageant that they started up. I remember the pageants that Clara Luper began to start here in the city, and then the story that my uncle would ask me is what’s my story. Going and entering into that pageant, I had to have a story. Through that, that was an inspiration on staying close ties with Uncle Portwood and I watched his business grow as an entrepreneur here in Oklahoma City.
FI: Mr. Williams was an outstanding upholsterer. He upholstered furniture and he could do things with fabric that I’d never seen done. Mr. Williams could put fabric on the wall and it would stay, and to visit his house, he did things with fabric that I just can’t even begin to express in this interview. He had a shop on the back of his house, and I used to shop at his little shop, and when you talked about him saying what’s your story, I remember Mr. Williams at 5th Street where I was attending church, him and Clara Luper were at 5th Street. So 5th Street was jumping with both of your relatives. [clears throat] Mr. Williams taught me that I needed to have a story, and I knew his daughter Donda. Donda is your cousin also, and Donda has a son who is a worldwide entertainer named Kanye West. You wanna talk a little bit about Donda and Kanye?
KCS: Growing up as a single parent, Kanye West and my son Corey and Kaylin and the nephews of my siblings’ children would come to my home. As the kids would get together once a year for the family reunion, we thought that was so important that having a family reunion was so important because you would get to know who your family, your kinmens are, and you would never enter into a marriage and not know the relationship. [clears throat] The boys would be on the phone talking, Kanye West and Corey. They would be rapping. I knew that Kanye was not here in Oklahoma City. He was far away, lived out of town, so as a single parent, I would cut their conversation short. I would tell the boys, “Hey, get off the phone. You all are on the phone and you all are bee-boppin’ and singing and everything and it’s running up my phone bill. Nobody’s going to pay the phone bill but me.” The boys would say, “Oh man. I gotta let you go.” Those were the funny things I look back at now.
FI: You never know how somebody’s going to end up.
KCS: That’s right.
FI: Where did you go to elementary school and junior high school and high school, Keely?
KCS: I went to James K. Polk Elementary School here in Oklahoma City. As we moved from the east side, I went to Stonewall Jackson.
FI: Did you enjoy school when you were in school?
KCS: I would say yes I did and no I didn’t because during the separation and divorce with my mother and father, I couldn’t understand the separation. Like I said, they didn’t divorce until I turned maybe 16 years old but coming home from school and not seeing my father, like his car there or just knowing that his lunchbox – he had this metal lunch pail. It was blue, and we knew that when we’d get up in the morning, seeing that lunch pail box there at the kitchen table, we knew he was in the room asleep. It was something about that lunch pail, and when my father was absent, coming home from school and hoping to see that blue lunch pail box sitting there in the kitchen, we couldn’t –
FI: You felt the loss.
KCS: Yeah, we felt the loss. I believe that it interrupted my ability in school. I became very confused. I began to daydream. My teacher would ask me questions that I just would not even respond. I would just stare. She would say if you’re not going to talk, if you’re not going to answer the question, go into the corner. As I knew my spot every day, was to go to that corner because I would not follow with the class in saying our ABCs or whatever that would be. Anyway, it wasn’t until I left the elementary going to high school and became, I guess, rebellious. I did not want to do any work. Then it was like I ended up having to go into what they called the slow learners class. My mother didn’t really know that there was a problem with my learning ability. Back then they called it the special ed classes. Because I daydreamed a whole lot –
FI: I do too, Keely. That’s why I’m laughing so hard. I used to get in trouble for daydreaming, and I’m an old woman and that’s my favorite thing. So you ended up in special ed?
KCS: Yes, and it was kind of – at first I didn’t know that there was nothing wrong with that. But when your friends want to know where you’re at, what class, and they’re looking for you. Why wasn’t you in the same class? It wasn’t until the eighth grade that my teacher, Mrs. Picks, a woman that knew my slow learning problem, but she always taught me that there was something special in me, and that not to give up and not to be ashamed that kids are different and they go through different things in life. She saw ability as being – I guess just unique and different. She gave me this poem that she wanted me to recite for history, Black history. Can I say the poem right quick?
FI: Yeah, if you know it.
KCS: Yes. The poem went like this: “For all who come to these shores, America was a land of freedom, hope, and opportunity for all except the Black man. For they came in chains, and hundreds of years they had to struggle and fight just to stay free.” That was the only script that I was supposed to remember, but I –
FI: That was profound.
KCS: Growing up with my Uncle Portwood and having the fabric and the different, beautiful fabric, the rays of beautiful colors in this store – I had my mother take me to the store to buy some fabric. I wrapped myself up in this fabric, and that’s when I started wearing a white turban on my head. From that, studying the history –
FI: How old were you at that time?
KCS: I was in the eighth grade.
FI: So that’s when you started wrapping your head?
KCS: Yes.
FI: You have been wrapping your head like that since the eighth grade?
KCS: Eighth grade.
FI: I didn’t mean to cut you off. Go ahead.
KCS: That’s okay. That inspired me because I started asking questions about for hundreds of years, did this happen? The movie Roots came out, and so it made me start going deep within myself to find out who I was and the culture and started asking questions, but there was still something in me that was not quite fulfilled. I still had that slow learning ability.
FI: That you had been convinced of?
KCS: Yeah. Anyway, as life went on, I’ve learned to go through the hurdles and obstacles in life, but I just kept in mind that my Uncle Portwood always said, “What’s your story? You’ve got to have a story, Black Fox.” That was part of my inspiration in growing up in the neighborhood.
FI: And going forward.
KCS: And going forward.
FI: You know, I’m so fascinated by this story. As a school psychologist in Atlanta, I had to fight for a three-year legal battle over Black children being put in special education for being retarded and they weren’t. They had been misdiagnosed. As you talk about this today, do you ever remember being given an evaluation?
KCS: Well, you know, in school they did take you through the test. Remember the headphones?
FI: Well, a lot of Black kids didn’t test well on standardized testing. I don’t know if you –
[talking over each other]
KCS: - the headphones, the little, heavy, black earphones that you put on your ears? They wanted to know the sound that you hear coming from the left side, right side?
FI: That was a speech therapy exam with you in the headphones. So you’ve had some exposure to testing, but I’m – as we have this interview, that’s an area that we can talk about some more because you have triumphed over that and went on with your life and have made some accomplishments with your life, but you’re such a young woman. At the time you were in school, some of the things that we know now, really we didn’t know then. When I met you, and I’ve only known you a short time, one of the things that you were excited about and one of the things you were wanting to do was to do your writing. I understand that you write poetry and compositions. You had an idea for a newsletter, and I would like for you to talk about the newsletter and the design ideas that you have. I’m going to give you about five minutes to talk about each one of those, so if you would just take a little bit of time and tell us about the writing and then tell us about the clothing and the businesses that you’ve started to develop those ideas.
KCS: Okay. How I got started was that I was a single parent. Like I said, I had the problem of being slow.
FI: How many children do you have?
KCS: [clears throat] I have three children.
FI: Their names?
KCS: Keelia is the eldest. Corey, which is my son, and Kaylin.
FI: Are they all Smith? (referring to the children’s last names)
KCS: They’re Smith and Jackson.
FI: Okay.
KCS: From my first marriage, and then my second marriage.
FI: Okay, so go ahead. You’re talking about the problem you had being slow and daydreaming. Go ahead.
KCS: Growing up in the community, Kerr Village, as I’d gotten older, I made some unwise decisions that should have been wise, but they were just not the right decision. I got pregnant, got married at the age of 16. That kind of slowed me down from completing my dream and my goals. I later went through a divorce. I wanted to make a comeback and wanted to – [clears throat] – excuse me, wanted to go to modeling school, Casablanca. [unknown slapping sound] As a single parent, having to raise my children, I figured what could I do to open up and share my thoughts and my feelings and my experience with the community because so many women like myself was going through – I’d seen the children having problems with functioning in school, not able to read as well. It’s a blessing that my children did very good in school. I figured that I would begin to write and tell my story. In telling my story, I wanted to open up with trying to bring awareness to what was going on in the low-income community.
FI: Very good.
KCS: When I asked for the support from the Oklahoma City DHS office to help support me, that I did not want to go to work, but I wanted to go to school. I wanted to go back to school and finish because it still wasn’t enough. There was sometimes I would sneak away from my family and my friends and go to the library where they had adult literacy classes.
FI: You’d go work on your reading.
KCS: Uh-huh (meaning yes). Because they began to want the women to start going out and looking for work, you had to get a job. My desire was just if I could go back to school. That was my desire, but through all of that, then I began to teach myself to read. My daughter, my sons, they would help me. They would go to school and get information from the library, a book, and bring it back home and read to me and say did I know this or did I know that and I said no. So, I said, “I’ll tell you what. In your science and health class, if you bring that story back to me, and you tell me what you’ve learned from that, I’ll publish it.” I didn’t know how to type, but I learned how to just type a peck, is what I was doing. I found and old typewriter, probably like a 1945 or one of those old antique typewriters. I began to type, peck on it and started my first news publication magazine.
FI: When was that?
KCS: The publication actually started in 1991.
FI: Okay, so that was your first publication, and it was God’s Woman of Wisdom?
KCS: Uh-huh (meaning yes). Educating Humanity. It’s about training up your child. You know, the Bible speaks to train up your child in the way he should go, and when he gets older, he won’t depart from it.
FI: Okay. Now, you have a business that’s related to clothing. Let’s talk about that a little bit and then we’ll close it out.
KCS: Yes. Also, then as I began to – I was fascinated with fabric. Like I said, it started when I was in the eighth grade. I began to buy fabric and wrap my head.
FI: Oh, it’s just beautiful.
KCS: I just learned how to start sewing by hand and I would just sew with the needle and thread. Then I decided that I wanted to start my own business and that was a store that I first opened up. It was called His and Hers Unique Clothing and Gift Shop Store: Designs by Covell.
FI: Okay, now where was that store? Is that your store that was on 23rd?
KCS: No. The first one was in Spencer.
FI: It was? Really?
KCS: Yes, and I figured that along with designing the clothes, that I had the news publication magazine, and I thought this would be a start, that if I could bring the publication from out of my home and into the store, and have my office in that building where I would be able to design the clothes, take a photograph picture of it, then put it in the publication. My first break was an evangelist missionary lady that came in from out of town. I was not a professional sewer, seamstress –
FI: You weren’t? You made that without being a professional? How did you come up with that?
KCS: I just came up with – I purchased some fabric from one of the sisters from Ghana, Africa. They imported some fabric from London, England. I purchased the fabric and I decided I would go home and come up with an idea of creating my own style of making hats. I just got straight pins and that was the only way I figured my hats could stay put together. The paper was real hard and it was very manageable to work with, and then I figured to keep it together would be with the straight pins. After I created this design, then I noticed that there were some of the women from Africa that said that the hat looked like the ladies in the movies coming to Africa had. Did you ever see that movie? It never dawned on me that I did something not exactly like theirs, but it was my own creation, my own style. I gave it a name. My middle name is Covell, so I call it the Covell Collection, and I collected that since it came from Africa. It was part of the collection of their beauty from their culture.
FI: You combined your own ideas and they came out looking like something actually that had been created in Africa. You had access to African fabric and fabric from Europe and that’s how you got started.
KCS: Afro-American.
FI: Afro-American. Keely, so is your business and that name still in existence?
KCS: The name – it’s under the Covell Collection. I also had another store that’s called Don Covell’s Collection along with the Anna Rose Walker Foundation. All of those are still combined, that I’m doing right to this day. It’s still a part of what I do.
FI: And that’s for your business ideas. You have four different ideas. Three of them are retail – two of them are retail and one of them is your writing, and one is a ministry.
KCS: Mm-hmm (meaning yes).
FI: Are you married, Keely?
KCS: No, I’m not. I’m single.
FI: You are – are you involved in a church? Do you have a church home? [paper rustling]
KCS: Yes, I do. I attend the Church of Pastor Karen, Karen Alexander. It’s called God’s Time Ministry.
FI: God’s Time Ministry. Keely, it’s been a blessing and a unique experience to interview you today. I’d like to let you close this interview with anything that God has placed on your heart that you would really like to say to end this interview, anything that is really on your heart. I noticed that you have some children. Do you have any advice for your children or for young people today?
KCS: Yes. I would say for not only my children but the young children today over all is that education is very, very important. Not only that you know who you are, but you have to know where you come from. Your family, your history is so important. I would like for the children to know that in order to make it, in order to survive in this world, this generation that we live in, that you must learn what you need to learn in order to raise a family, in order to know where you’re going. When I say that, I’m saying that reading is very important. Writing is very important.
FI: Yes, it is.
KCS: As the words that we’ve heard before, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I ask that through this that we as a community will look closer to see the most important thing that we need to get involved in and stay involved, and not be ashamed of any type of obstacles that may come your way, that you may think that you should be ashamed of. You don’t have to be. Literacy Library was a help to me.
FI: You admitted you needed the help in reading and you went and got it.
KCS: Yes.
FI: I really agree with you. There are so many things to know in life. Acknowledging what you don’t know is the start to getting answers that will improve your life in terms of where to start on working to improve yourself. Not being ashamed, not burying your head in the sand, not being in denial, but to do a self-assessment and come to grips with the fact that you have a limitation that you need to work on. I admire you and respect you for taking it where you realized you were, knowing that reading is a part of all business transactions, and going straight to that source to begin. You’re still quite a young woman, Keely, and there’s so much life in you. I would just want to encourage you as I sit here with you this morning, to continue your education and to get your businesses organized so that you might get the assistance you need and the direction that you need and establish your priorities so that you can focus on one business. I noticed that you have a prayer in front of you called “Prayer in a Pinch,” and I think you need to share that “Prayer in a Pinch” with us. I can’t let you close without – [both laugh] – without sharing that “Prayer in a Pinch.” I mean, that’s got to be some good stuff, Keely.
KCS: Well, a “Prayer in a Pinch.” It says, “A Prayer in a Pinch: Lord put Your arms around my shoulders and Your hand over my mouth.” You know, you can take it either way. You have some people that may say that some people talk too much, some things that you might say that you shouldn’t say, but I’ve learned that it’s what’s not being said, and that is my way of saying I’ve had a problem with talking too much. You know, the kid’s parents would say, “Child, you’re talking too much. Hush your mouth. Don’t talk too much.” I’ve learned that through that, there’s a good way also, and there’s a time to talk and a time to be silent, but I learned from speaking out about my experience, using the publication to spread abroad and educate humanity that I knew when to talk. From just learning that even though you’ve got that pinch, it would slow you down from not talking too much or saying anything, but then there’s a time to talk and a time to be silent. I’ve always kept that around because I knew that if I didn’t say the right thing or said too much, that God’s arms would be around my shoulders.
FI: Keely, I am glad that you are allowing God’s arms to be around your shoulder, and with that, that is the best way I can think of for us to end your interview, and may He place his arm around your shoulder in your business and with your family.
KCS: Thank you.
FI: Thank you.
End of interview.