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Jimi Hendrix
The Man, the Magic, the Truth
Chapter One
Johnny/Jimmy
She loved a good time. There were few of them in her short and wretched life.
Lucille Jeter shook off the gloomy blanket of wartime anxieties that troubled all the adults around her, and despite her family's admonitions, she ignored the tedious drip ... drip ... drip of the Seattle evening rain to go out and dance every chance she got.
The sweet-natured and naïve "baby" of the Jeter family, Lucille hadabrotherandthreeoldersisters. Theirparents, Prestonand Clarice, were typical of many of the black residents of Seattle in the 1940s, men and women who had migrated west, seeking a better life but frequently disappointed. Born in Virginia, Preston Jeter possessed educationbut few opportunities. He worked,atvarioustimes,as a miner and as a longshoreman. His wife, Clarice, a native of Arkansas, brought in much-needed income toiling as cleaning lady and housekeeper. Welfare checks sometimes entered the picture. Mrs. Jeter's Pentecostal religion was both her rock and her social life; she worried and prayed about Lucille and her always fragile health. Lucille was inclined to overdo.
The sight of the pretty, tiny, pale-skinned black girl kicking up her heels and the sound of her giddy laughter as she was tossed into theaircaptivatedAlHendrix.Itseemedthatshewouldneverget enoughofthebrightlightsandspiritedjitterbugrhythms.Lucille loved her music!
Theexhilaratingnightsonthedancefloordidn'tlastlong. Weeks after the couple's first meeting, Lucille became pregnant and hurriedly married twenty-two-year-old Al, an attractive if not handsome bantamroosterofaman,standingbarelyfivefoottwo.She told her mother that she liked the way Al smiled at her.
Her young husband was an American citizen raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, who had settled in Seattle several years before to try his luck as a lightweight boxer in the city 's Golden Gloves competition. Al 's father, Ross Hendrix, was an Ohio native who grew up to becomeaChicagopolicemanandeventually,makinganexotic switch, took a job as stagehand for a vaudeville troupe. He married one of the dancers in the company, Nora Moore, the daughter of a full-bloodedCherokeemotherandanIrishfather.NoraandRoss Hendrix decided to give up the traveling life and make a new start in Vancouver. In quick succession Nora gave birth to two sons, a daughter,and finally to James Allen Hendrix, generally known as Al.
Since his education had ceased in the seventh grade and he was unprepared for any skilled work, Al turned to the love of dancing he 'd inherited from his mother to making a few bucks here and there in dance contests. His specialties were tap dancing, jitterbugging, and soloimprovisations.AlthoughAllater wastorefertohimselfasa member of an important show business family, Mama Nora worked longhoursinthekitchenofaVancouverrestaurantaftersheleft vaudeville; as a teenager Al was a waiter there.
WhenhemarriedLucille,Alhadperhapsonlythreethingsin common with his sixteen-year-old wife: They both were the youngest children intheirrespectivefamilies, they each lovedto dance, and theyhadachildontheway.Withindaysaftertheirmarriageon March 31, 1942, Al kissed Lucille good-bye. Drafted into the army, he was sent more than fifteen hundred miles away to Oklahoma, and then on to Georgia.
Lucille was barely seventeen when she gave birth to her first son, Johnny, on November 27, 1942. The birth took place at the home of Dorothy Harding, a good friend to Lucille 's sister Dolores. Relatives and friends joked about how strange it was that these two short peoplehad conceived such a graceful, long-limbed baby.
Raising a baby was no joke, and Lucille was unprepared to handle the transition from dropout schoolgirl to mother. Through an army snafu, she was not receiving any of Al's military pay. Not long after Johnny was born, Preston Jeter died of a heart condition. As a result, Clarice was plagued by financial problems. She loved Lucille's baby, butshecouldn'ttakecareofhimandalsoworkfivedaysaweek. ClariceandherdaughterDoloresweredeeplyconcernedabout Johnny'swelfareashewasshuttledaroundacircleofrelatives, friends, and even completestrangersin homes in and near Seattle. Week to week Johnny never was quite sure who was "in charge" -- a phrase that stayed with him. He slept on pillows, in baskets, and in otherpeople'sbeds;arealbabycribwasaluxuryJohnnyseldom knew.LucillefloatedinandoutofJohnny 'slife,the"Mama"he adored -- eveniftheyounggirlcouldn'tsupporthimor manageto take care of him for more than a few days at a time ...
Jimi Hendrix
The Man, the Magic, the Truth. Copyright © by Sharon Lawrence. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
