musician

Laddie Springs, jazz pianist.

Who was Laddie Springs? A passing mention of his orchestra in a 14 August 1937 Journal and Guide article led me down a rabbit hole. It turns out Springs spent only a few  years in Wilson, but what a life he led!

Laddie Springs was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In the 1910 census of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, N.C.: at 714 West Street, janitor Frank Springs, 36; wife Annie, 37; children Pearl, 14, Clyde, 11, and Lattie, 8; boarder Jim Stearling, 23, laborer on street car line; and mother-in-law Nancie Abernathy, 65.

In his late teens, Springs found work as a clothes presser.

1923 Charlotte, N.C., city directory.

But he was soon on the road — the beginning of a half-century of professional piano-playing on the chitlin’ circuit, in vaudeville theatres, in schools, in jazz clubs, and in private homes.

We first see him — just two years out of the laundry — heading the New Orleans Jazz Band at Bailey’s 81 Theatre on Atlanta’s Decatur Street. He was touring as part of Seals & Mitchell’s “big revue,” a variety show featuring musicians, “real dancers — who can sing,” and comedians. The 81 was a black-owned venue, but this frolic was for a whites-only audience.

Atlanta Journal, 27 November 1925.

The show was a hit, and Laddie Springs’ “famous” band was hailed as the “best in the country.”

Atlanta Constitution, 28 November 1925.

A week later, Seals and Mitchell’s chorus were in Birmingham, Alabama, with Springs fronting a different group — the Six Melody Boys.

Chicago Defender, 5 December 1925.

At the end of the year, Springs fetched up at the Booker Washington Theatre in Pensacola, Florida, with Frank Radcliff‘s Musical Comedy company.

Pensacola News Journal, 29 December 1925.

Eighteen months later, Laddie Springs leading a seven-piece orchestra. His wife Bernice Springs — I don’t know where they married — was planning “to spend a week with Ma Rainey in Chicago while she is recording and enjoying herself  riding in her $13,000 bus.” The Springses could be reached at their home at 428 East 2nd Street in the old Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte’s Second Ward. (The site is now under a Hilton Garden Inn.)

Pittsburgh Courier, 2 July 1927.

In 1929, the Springs’ old colleagues in the Seals and Mitchell show wrote from San Bernardino, California, that they wanted to hear from “Laddie Springs and wife.”

Saint Louis Defender, 2 March 1929.

The Springses apparently rode out much of the Great Depression in Wilson. A 1932 social column in the Journal and Guide mentioned that Laddie Springs furnished music for a home wedding and, as a member of the Carolina Stompers Orchestra, entertained guests of the Pleasure Seekers Social Club.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 2 April 1932.

Several months later, both Springses performed for the Moonlight Chasers club at a house on Church Street.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 10 September 1932.

The following month, Laddie Springs played piano at a birthday party held at the Whitney Hotel.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 October 1932.

The Carolina Stompers performed at Wilson’s Black high school in February 1933. Vocalist Catherine Wilkerson performed “Strange,” composed by Laddie Springs, which became one of the band’s signature tunes.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 18 February 1933.

A few weeks later, the high school’s home ec club gave a dance at “Vicks Hall,” which was probably a space in the Odd Fellows building Samuel H. Vick had built.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 11 March 1933.

Doris Henderson was born 14 December 1935 in Wake County, N.C., to Bessie Henderson and Laddie Springs.

Laddie and Bernice Springs separated, and he moved north to Philadelphia. Bernice Springs appears to have remained for some time in Wilson County, where she is listed in the 1940 census enumeration of the town of Elm City.

On 27 October 1940, in Wilmington, Delaware, Laddie Springs, 36, of Philadelphia, single, musician, born in North Carolina to Frank and Anna Springs, married Mildred F. Smith, 30, of Wilmington, Delaware, divorced, born in Delaware to Wesley and Alretta B. Taylor.

In 1942, Laddie Springs registered for the World War II draft in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Per his registration card, he was born 22 April 1904 in North Carolina; lived at 1340 North 57th Street, Philadelphia; his contact was Mildred Springs; and he worked for Pop Clede Subway Grill, Chester, Pennsylvania.

1950 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, city directory.

In the 1950 census of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: at 5526 Master, apartment 2, Laddie Springs, 45, orchestra musician, and wife Mildred, 42, operator in dress factory.

In 1970, Springs briefly joined Ed Ashley’s Jazz Band, which played small clubs in the Philadelphia area. The liner notes for their single album includes a brief bio of Springs, which noted that he had written “Strange” and had played duo piano with Earl Hines and Fats Waller in the 1930s.

Laddie Springs died in Philadelphia in July 1988. His obituary glosses over his early years on the road and his years in Wilson and erroneously credits him with founding the Carolina Stompers, but sheds light on his decades in Philadelphia. [Sidenote: my grandmother spent her more than four decades in Philadelphia at 5549 Wyalusing Avenue, just one block from Camphor Memorial United Methodist.]

Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 July 1988.

Image of “Strange” record courtesy of Swing Blues Jazz 78 RPM.

Silas Green plays Wilson; performs tribute to former trouper.

The black-owned tent show “Silas Green from New Orleans” toured for fifty years with singers, dancers, comedians, and musicians playing one-night stands across the South. Lead actress Ada Lockhart Booker, who began her theatrical career with Sissieretta Jones, The Black Patti, wrote “letters” to the Chicago Defender from the road, sharing tour news, touting acts, and gassing up the show’s owner Charles Collier.

In May 1924, Ada Booker wrote from Wilson. After briefly mentioning her hospital stay in Cordele, Georgia, Booker introduces readers to the show’s personnel. “We are in the strawberry section now,” she noted in closing, though this was not, strictly speaking, true. North Carolina’s historic strawberry-growing region was further southeast.

Chicago Defender, 31 May 1924.

A week later, Silas Green was 75 miles down the road in New Bern. Booker noted that “the boys on parade [had] paid a very fitting tribute” to the memory of Warren “Stiffy” Thorne, a Wilson native who had passed the previous November and “was quite well thought of in his home town.” “Dear Old Pal of Mine” was a popular World War I tune and, sung on circle with Bill Jones surrounded by choristers, must have been a moving experience.

Chicago Defender, 7 June 1924.

Four years later, Silas Green show advertised for new troupe members, including clarinetists, a novelty act, and “neat, attractive chorus girls of good character.” Wilson was listed among the show’s eastern North Carolina stops over the next few weeks.

Chicago Defender, 19 May 1928.

The era of black minstrel shows is fascinating, but poorly remembered and little-studied. If you want to know more, start with Alex Albright’s essay — chock-full of oral interviews and photographs — “Noon Parade and Midnight Ramble: Black Traveling Tent Shows in North Carolina,” in Good Country People: An Irregular Journal of The Cultures of Eastern North Carolina (1995). You can buy it for ten bucks at rafountain.com.

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  • Warren Thorne

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Hattie Grissom, 25; son Herman, 8; sister Anie, 23, and brother Warren [Thorne], 15, day laborer.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Vick Street, Herman Grisson, 30, barber at Tate & Hines; wife Lydia, 26; children Dorothy, 5, Vivian, 3, and Ruth, 7 months; mother Hattie, 46; and uncle Warren Thorn, 35, musician.

Warren Thorne died 6 November 1923 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 October 1886 in Wilson County to Preston Thorne of Edgecombe County, N.C., and Edna Adams of Greene County, N.C.; lived at 203 Vick Street; worked as a musician; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Hattie Grissom [his sister] was informant.

[Sidenote: Warren Thorne was not the only musician in his family. His brother Isaiah Prophet Thorne joined Sherwood Orphans’ School brass band, traveled to London, and spent decades touring Europe before washing up in Istanbul in 1942 and writing the Daily Times for help reconnecting with family.]

Who was artist Lou Blackwell Robbins?

We first met Lou Blackwell Robbins here, giving summer art lessons to children at the Colored Graded School in 1936. I still have not been able to find her in county records, but several Journal and Globe articles published over the next year or so provide some clues to her life.

In this 14 November 1936 piece, Robbins’ vocation is listed as “artist.” She had given a demonstration on making pottery to members of the Black Creek Home Demonstration Club, which met at the home of Mrs. L.D. Tomlinson. (Sallie Owens Tomlinson and Louise Rainwater, who demonstrated cake-making to the club, were white women. Robbins’ invitation into Tomlinson’s home to demonstrate pottery-making must have been a remarkable event.) Robbins had also founded the Professional Women’s Art Club in Wilson, whose officers drew from Black Wilson’s upper crust (such as it was.)

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 14 November 1936.

Three months later, Robbins was in Norfolk, Virginia, lecturing and exhibiting her work. A March 13 article “explained something of her life and her past experience in the field of art and her ambitions for the remainder of her life.”

There’s a lot to digest.

We learn that Robbins graduated from Wilson High School (later known as Darden High) in 1934. She had two adopted daughters. Her interest in art was encouraged by a high school teacher, leading her to give up “medicine and a career as a doctor.” (What?) She produced art across multiple genres, was a lecturer and a teacher, and was writing a history of Negroes in North Carolina. She sculpted in North Carolina clay and had carved busts of numerous prominent men.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 March 1937.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 8 May 1937.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 19 June 1937.

In late summer, Lou Blackwell Robbins returned to Norfolk to compete in a talent contest at the Booker-T Theatre. Once again, we get a complex picture of Robbins’ talents. She told the reporter that she had been inspired by Voo Doo Fire, a book given her by an Army veteran, to make percussion instruments by hand, assisted by children in Saint John A.M.E. Zion’s music program. [Richard A. Loederer’s Voodoo Fire in Haiti, published in 1935?] Captivated by the instruments, the children formed the Jungle Babies Band and booked performances at Saint John and Vick’s Casino, the nightclub operated by Samuel H. Vick Jr. in his father’s old Globe Theatre space in the Odd Fellows Building on East Nash Street. Inspired by the “delighted” audience response, Robbins went to Norfolk to try to book the Jungle Babies there. Encouraged to enter the contest, she secured Eloise Hunter as an accompanist on piano and took third place. However, the reporter’s description of the performance is just snarky enough to cast doubt on Robbins’ musical prowess.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 11 September 1937.

Lou Blackwell Robbins’ time in Norfolk was not entirely positive. A lengthy 13 August 1938 article about troubles at Queen Street Baptist Church mentioned that Robbins had filed unspecified charges against its pastor, Rev. P.P. Eaton, resulting in his reprimand.

I’ve found no other reference to Lou Blackwell Robbins. Was she a Wilson native? Who were her husband and children? If she left Wilson, where did she go? What became of her art and writings?

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  • Mrs. E.H. Diggs — Mary Grant Diggs. In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 205 Vick Street, barber Edgar H. Diggs, 49, at Hines Barber Shop; wife Mary, 39, teacher in Stantonsburg; and children Edgar, 13, Mary, 9, and Preston, 11.
  • Mrs. A.M. Bullock
  • Mrs. A.R. Peacock — perhaps, Eloise Reavis Peacock.
  • Mrs. A.M. Fisher
  • Mrs. Elizabeth Bordy — Elizabeth Brodie, who, in fact, was not yet married. On 17 April 1937, Elizabeth Brodie, 20, of Wilson, daughter of Arthur and Anna Brodie, married Luther E. McKeithan, 25, son of Henry and Sarah McKeithan of Cumberland County, in Wilson. A.M.E. minister John C. Coaxum performed the ceremony in the presence of Rhoda McMillan, Alex McMillan and Sallie Suggs.
  • “Biddie” Willets
  • Dick Sanders
  • Louis Thomas — Louis Sanford Thomas Jr. In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 715 East Green, Louis Thomas, 43, building carpenter; wife Lillie, 33; and children Louis Jr., 16, Charlie H., 14, and Van Jewel, 12.
  • Jerry Lee Cook — Jerry Lee Cooke Jr.
  • Edgar Gerald — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 910 East Green, Edgar Gerald, 48, tobacco warehouse laborer, born in Mullens, S.C.; wife Rebecca, 37, born in Norfolk[, Virginia]; children Bernice, 17, Edgar, 16, and Barbara, 4; and roomer John Sharpe, 22, hotel bellboy.
  • Bob Speights — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 624 Viola, Theodore Speight, 38, barber; wife Marie, 34; children Robert, 13, Evangeline, 10, Clyde, 8, and Randolph, 2; and lodger Charlotte Tate, 32, servant.
  • Samuel H. Vick Jr. — the enterprising Sam Vick Jr. was a chemist, a cosmetics salesman, a booking agent, and a nightclub owner.

Drummer moves to his own beat.

I’ve been interviewing folks lately and stopped by to see my friend Samuel C. Lathan when I was recently at home. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and, also per usual, learned lots of new things to research further. Here’s a 23 February 2008 Wilson Daily Times feature on Mr. Lathan, who is now 96.

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By Keith Barnes | Daily Times Photojournalist

Sam Lathan’s life has always been about the music.

Whether it was keeping rhythm as a child while banging on cardboard boxes on his grandmother’s porch or performing in later years with big-name musical groups, it has always been that way.

Most of his performing now involves playing drums with The Monitors, a local group, but Lathan, 78, reminisced recently about the early days of his long musical career, recalling the many people and groups who have influenced him.

He said beating on the boxes helped him develop rhythm, which led to his fascination with the drums.

When he was about 12 years old, he remembers, a group called “Winston’s [Winstead’s] Mighty Minstrels” came to Wilson and paraded through the streets to draw an audience for the group’s midnight shows.

Lathan got his first chance to perform in front of people when the Minstrels let him play the drums with them during one of the parades.

Following that early experience, he later played the cymbals for the Darden High School marching band in the 1940s and while at Darden also helped form a swing music band called “The Fourteen Flames of Rhythm.”

The group played at Wilson locales such as the Cherry Hotel, Briggs Hotel and the teenage center at the corner of Pine and Broad streets.

“We only made about 75 cents apiece, but we were just happy to be playing,” he said.

While with the group, Lathan met Steve Coleman, who was part of another Wilson group called the “Carolina Stompers.”

The Stompers had a drummer named Dank Dunn, and Dunn allowed Lathan some playing time at the drums during the group’s rehearsals.

By the time he was 17 years old, Lathan was playing on weekends in another group of Steve Coleman’s, and it was there he met Wallace Kemp, who greatly influenced his musical style and taught him a different, better way of playing.

“I learned from him not to beat the drums, but instead to play the drums,” Lathan said.

Playing gigs whenever he could find them, Lathan continued to hone his musical skills in several groups over the next few years including an eastern North Carolina tour with the Lloyd Price Orchestra.

In 1955, Lathan was offered a job to play in a Jacksonville band called “Jimmy Hines & The Four Dukes.”

He took it and was paid $75 a week, which was “more money than I had ever seen,” said Lathan.

When that group broke up, he stayed in Jacksonville, playing with another band called the “Jazzeroos,” a name taken from the club called Jazz Land where it performed.

“We filled the place up every night, mostly with Marines,” he said.

Lathan stayed with that group until 1959 when he went to Washington, D.C., to join a band called the “Billy Clark Trio” which had a bass guitar player named Sam Thomas.

After being there about a year Lathan returned to Wilson and got a job at Burlington Mills.

Then, one day he got the type of break most musicians dream of when he received a telegram from Sam Thomas telling him to call James Brown in New Orleans.

Lathan made the call and spoke with the legendary performer who had heard about his drum-playing through Thomas.

“They tell me you can play,” Brown said.

“Yes sir, I can,” said Lathan.

Brown and his band, The Famous Flames, were scheduled perform in Wilson two weeks later at Reid Street Community Center, and Lathan auditioned for him before the show.

Brown liked what he saw, and Lathan joined the group as its drummer, traveling and performing with them for two years.

Shortly thereafter, in 1963, Lathan joined The Monitors and has been playing with the group ever since.

“Music has been my life,” Lathan said. “I’ve never wanted to do anything else. But, I’ve always been fascinated with writing music, and if I had it to do over again I would like to have written more.”

Jewel Jennifer Phillips, teacher, singer, songwriter.

The Evening Star, 1 December 1917.

On 30 November 1917, William H. Phillips, 25, of Raleigh, North Carolina, married accomplished pianist Jewel Jennifer, 18, in Washington, D.C. Dr. Phillips, in fact, had recently established a dental practice in Wilson, and the couple set up their home there.

The Phillipses had no children, and the marriage did not last. Before 1930 (when her former husband remarried), Jewell J. Phillips had returned to D.C., where she commenced a remarkable musical career under her maiden name and took a position in the business college her brother W. Emile Jennifer founded, the first of its kind for African-Americans in Washington.

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In the 1910 census of Washington, D.C.: at 445 Second Street, census office clerk William Jennifer, 40, born in Maryland; wife Syme, 31, born in Mississippi; children Harold, 15, born in Louisiana, Jewel, 13, and William, 10, born in Texas, and Archibald, born in D.C.; and mother-in-law Bettie Jones, 50, widow, born in Mississippi.

Washington Bee, 17 May 1913.

In 1917, Jewel Jennifer was appointed teacher at the Banneker School.

The Evening Star, 17 June 1917.

The Evening Star, 22 November 1917.

Six months later, newly married, she requested an official name change:

Strangely, Jennifer is also listed in the 1917-18 Catalogue of

In 1919, Jewel J. Phillips appears in the Raleigh, N.C., city directory as a teacher at Shaw University.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 332 South Spring, widow Ella Battle, 52, and her children Grace [Glace], 27, teacher Roberta, 29, tobacco worker John, 25, and Olga Battle, 11, shared their home with boarders Georgia Burks, 25, a Georgia-born teacher; chauffeur Theodore Speight, 17; and roomers William Phillips, 35, a dentist, and his wife Jewel, 23.

Washington Bee, 20 March 1920.

Jewel J. Phillips was still in Wilson when her brother Archibald Jennifer died in 1925.

The Evening Star, 

And she appears in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory:

However, the same year, she filed a copyright for an original composition and listed her address as Washington, D.C.

In the 1929 Washington, D.C., city directory: Jennifer Jewel musician r 1243 N J av nw

In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1243 N.J. Avenue, owned and valued at $20,000, Syme Jennifer, 49, manager at business college; daughter Jewel, 28, Jennifer School teacher; and roomer Flo. K. Williamson, 34.

Washington Tribune, 8 September 1934.

In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1243 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Emile W. Jennifer, 39, private school teacher; mother Syme L. Jennifer, 60, notary; and sister Jewel J. Phillips, 33, pianist for fraternal corporation.

Times Herald (Washington, D.C.), 1 February 1947.

Jewell Jennifer Phillips died 8 June 1949 at her family home at 1243 New Jersey Avenue, Washington, D.C.

The Evening Star, 11 June 1949.

She taught him to play.

Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 11 May 1954.

When I first saw “Hinnant,” “jazz,” and “church organ,” I thought this was the obituary of one of the hundreds of African-American natives of Wilson County that migrated to Washington, D.C.

However — no. The clue: Carl Hinnant learned to play piano from “his old colored mammy and helped him sound out ‘Coonshine.'”

Carl Hinnant was born in Wilson in 1896. No “colored mammy” is listed in his family’s household in 1900 or 1910, and we may never know the name of the talented African-American woman who launched his musical career.