Covenant News

Mavis Staples Praises Parental Influence in Life

CHICAGO, IL (September 16, 2005) - Strong parental involvement was the primary reason legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples has been able to live a life of significance, she told an audience last Friday night at North Park University.

Staples enchanted and inspired the gathering who heard the singer recount her life story and sing several songs in the Anderson Chapel. For most of the evening, she was interviewed by Terri Hemmert, a long-time Chicago disc jockey.

Mavis was part of the legendary Staples Singers, who had hits that included "Uncloudy Day," "I'll Take You There," and "Let's Do it Again." This year, she was awarded a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement.

Roebucks "Pops" Staples would inspire his daughters to achieve their best while being there for them emotionally and spiritually, she recalled. "He would take us to the park on Saturday and then he would take us to church on Sunday." Throughout the night, the discussion was as much about him - because his influence became such a part of her, whether it was singing in church, taking the group's music beyond the church walls or becoming deeply involved in the civil rights movement.

Pops gathered Mavis and her sisters together and taught them to sing as a group while they were yet young children. The family soon was playing in churches across the South. In 1963, her life would change forever, not when the family was singing in church, but when they visited Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to hear the preacher Martin Luther King Jr.

Pops and King mutually admired one another, although they had never met until that day in the doorway of the church as the congregation left the service. The two men talked a long time and afterward the father told the children back at the hotel, "Listen you all, I really like this man's message. And I think if he can preach that, we can sing it."

Mavis and the family would sing it in Selma, they would sing it in Montgomery and they would sing it in Washington D.C. Along the way, they would sing "Why Am I Treated So Bad," which Pops wrote after watching nine African-American girls face the wrath of crowds as they attended what had been a whites-only school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The song became King's favorite, and the civil rights leader asked them to sing it every night as they traveled together.

Mavis also praised her mother who she said was caring, a great cook, a shrewd businesswoman and able to combine them. Mavis' mother was widely known for her sweet potato pie - people such as Ray Charles would plead for it when dining at the Staples house. Mother used her skills to make sure the records of the Staples Singers would get played because she would bring pie to the disc jockeys if they played the music, Mavis said. Her actions prompted one friend to say that she was guilty of "pie-ola" as opposed to payola - the illegal practice of paying disc jockeys to play a performer's music.

Ray Charles was not the only musician to come around the Staples house, but others, including Nancy Wilson and Mahalia Jackson (Mavis' idol) would spend time with the family. Mavis says her experiences have helped her keep a smile even in the most difficult of times, noting it is important to remember to love even a person's enemies. She has sung with numerous people including a recent duet with Bob Dylan on his recently re-recorded Gonna Change My Way of Thinking.

Mavis sang several songs through the evening, including "Precious Lord," after recounting that the song was part of the most cherished part of her career, when Jackson called her on stage in 1959 to sing with her. Mavis said she was nervous - not simply to be singing with her idol - but because she didn't know what the song was going to be. She was relieved when Jackson picked one Mavis knew.

Mavis ended the evening with a rousing rendition of "I'll Take You There," involving the audience, which gave her a standing ovation.

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