Kirk Franklin

I was clicking around on my profile and clicking my own interests and found that I can find people with interests like my own. Pretty neat. I did not know that. I have found that a lot of different people like Kirk Franklin. I mean really different types of people. A very diverse group of people. This pleased me. I know Kirk Franklin. I mean I really know Kirk Franklin. Well, I used to know Kirk before he got famous. My husband and I attended his wedding. We weren't invited to the reception, though. It was private. I never got a thank you note for my $50 wedding gift either. I wonder if I knew Kirk Franklin as well as I thought I did. Probably not. Actually, I think Kirk Franklin forgot that he knew me. Ha Ha! I knew Kirk well enough to know how poor he was before he was famous. I remember him driving a Pontiac Fiero (remember those) that used to break down so much that once we even had to go pick him up because his car broke down on the way to a birthday dinner. His birthday and my father-in-law's birthday are the same, January 26th. Kirk was of course invited to the big After Church Sunday Dinner/Birthday Party for my father-in-law, and Kirk.

Kirk used to be the choir director at our old church. In fact, it is the church that his adopted "father" still preaches at. Stranger's Rest Missionary Baptist Church. Reverend Roy E. West officiating. That's what it says on the sign in the front. Kirk was an active member of this church up until his being discovered. He still occasionally came back for visits and the like. But he decided to stop coming once he got married. Could cause trouble for he and his wife with the women at the church is what I was told.

I used to sing in the DFW Mass Choir. Kirk also helped with the choir, wrote music, directed, played and sang on albums. This was a significant platform that was instrumental in him being discovered. I don't think the choir meets anymore. But it was great when it did. I am even on one of the albums. Not as a soloist but I am singing on the album. I can even pick out my voice. I can even hear my "shout" if you will, when I got happy during the recording. That, in itself, was exciting as well.

We recorded the album after the famous Cinco De Mayo storm that hit the DFW area. It was a terrible, terrible storm with hail, high winds, sporadic tornados, rain and flooding. The night of the storm there was a rehearsal. It was the eve of the recording and I was supposed to have been at the recording site at 3:00. The rain and winds were already horrible in Fort Worth and I was to drive to Dallas or a surrounding town, can't remember which. Needless to say I did not make it. My husband and I had only been in our house a few months and the thin new trees in our yard were being blown so hard that the tops of them were bent over and touching the ground! Did you get that? The trees in my yard were bent and touching the ground on both ends!!!!

One of the leads in our songs was killed that night. She was riding in a truck with her boyfriend and her children. They got caught in some flood water and she and both or one of her children were killed. We, the choir, found out about it as we came to the recording site one by one the next day. It was horrible. So sad and tragic. So many of the choir members were completely upset, understandably. I personally did not know the woman but was of course sad to see my friends hurting. I did meet the young woman, less than 28 years old. She was at a rehearsal for our choir working on the song with us a week or so before all of this happened. I don't remember her name, but I do remember how pretty she was.

If you looked at the album back and looked for my name, you won't find it. The name above mine was listed twice. It was deleted on editing. Nope, mine was deleted. There is a name that is listed on the album twice, the second listing is supposed to be my name. Go 'head, look. You will see that my name should have been next alphabetically. But it's not. The other name is listed twice. I don't even mention it, usually.