A True Story in Honor of Black American History Month

This is a true story. I didn't submit it for the Black history month contest because it didn't happen anywhere near my hometown. It happened, in fact, in Southeast Asia 20 years ago.

I was in the Navy at the time, serving as an air traffic controller at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines. An Air Force friend had asked me to take the afternoon radio shift at the Armed Forces Radio/Television station in Subic Bay, which was attached to the air station. I already had an FCC broadcaster's license and some experience as a civilian, so I gladly took the spot. It was any radio announcer's dream job; unlike modern announcers, I had no rules or format to follow. I got to program my own music and my own show. The only stipulations were: no profanity and make sure to play six public service announcements during the 2-hour shift. Give a weather update once an hour. The rest was all mine to play with.

I was in the music library about 30 minutes before air time, pulling out my selections for the show. As I turned toward the door with an armload of records, I saw a tall, striking older black woman wandering around the hall. I said, "Looking for someone, ma'am?" She turned and looked me up and down and said "I thought this was all Air Force. What's a sailor doing in here?' "Well, I've got the afternoon show, ma'am. I guess they were a little short of broadcasters." " You've got a show coming on now?" "Yes ma'am." "Can you interview me? I'm trying to get back to the States. I've got a good story to tell, too."

Well, what the hell. At that time, the Philippines were full of expatriates from all over the world who had fallen in love with the tropical climate and the cheap cost of living, but soon found that civil and political unrest don't make for a life in paradise. I didn't want to be rude, though..she seemed to have all her marbles and there were a lot of interesting stories to be heard in those days. I suggested she review her story with me before we actually went on the air. I got us some coffee and we sat down in studio A to talk. What followed was no less than a fantastic story; so fantastic that I immediately cancelled my plans for the show, pulled out all of her records from the music library, and set her up with a microphone in the studio. We had no script or even notes, but we agreed we could wing it. This was LaVern Baker's story, aired on AFRTS Subic Bay afternoon radio show, November 1987.

LaVern had been a major singing star from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s. She had recorded for OKeh records, RCA Victor, and King records as featured singer with various bands. Her big break came in 1953 when she was signed as a solo act by Atlantic records. Her first smash hit was "Tweedlee-Dee" in 1955, topping both R and B and Pop charts. She followed that up with "Still", "Bop Ting-a-Ling", "Play it Fair", and arguably one of her best-known singles, "Jim Dandy". Her star continued to rise as she had parts in several Alan Freed rock and roll movies, was featured on Ed Sullivan's historic "R and B Revue" special , and cranked out yet another chart-topper, "I Cried a Tear" in 1958. She was riding high ("..and built like a brick house, too! I was a natural for the movie camera..") when she recorded a duet with Jackie Wilson for Brunswick Records ( "Think Twice"). She was happy in her success, had a husband she loved, and her youthful, statuesque beauty and powerful voice were garnering a lot of interest from movie producers. "The world was my oyster back then. I had been blessed many times over, and I was living the dream life. I was untouchable, or so I thought.." Ms. Baker sighed. " I wish I could recall it better. It all feels like a movie I watched a long time ago now. The years have a way of wilting memories around the edges. At least, the years did that to me."

Shortly after her single with Jackie Wilson was released in 1966, LaVern went on a USO tour to Vietnam to entertain the troops. While performing through rainy season storms and flooding, LaVern caught pneumonia. Like the professional she was, she continued to perform until her lung collapsed. She was airlifted to a remote hospital in Thailand, where she recuperated after 3 long months. In the meantime, the tour had continued without her and then returned to the States.
" I didn't know what to do, who to go to..the tour was gone and I was in a strange country where telephone service was practically nonexistent. I hitched with farmers on wagons to Bangkok, where I thought I could at least find some Americans. I found some U.S. Marines there on R and R, and they took me to the Air Force base. I'd had to slog through rice paddies in water up to my shoulders in some places to get to Bangkok, so by the time the Marines got me to the base I'd had a relapse." LaVern was once again airlifted out--this time to a naval hospital in the Philippines, where more modern treatment was available. There she spent another 4 months recovering from her second bout of pneumonia, along with dysentery probably picked up from the local water which she had had to drink on her journey.

When she was finally well enough to be released, LaVern was in a quandary as to what she should do next. " I had a husband back home who had no idea where I was or even if I was alive; some of my friends from the USO troupe had told him I was deathly ill and airlifted out, but no one knew what happened after that. I tried to get a military flight back, but that was wartime, you know. As a civilian I had the lowest priority for a flight stateside. Most of the room was taken up by poor boys who were badly injured, or had died on the field and were being shipped back to their families. I knew I had to raise some money to get a commercial flight back out of Manila, so I asked the commanding officer of Subic Bay if I could get a job. He put me in the NCO club as a singer, so I started saving my money and trying to get in touch with my husband back home. I had to live off-base, but it was cheap and the locals were kind to me and I made some good friends on and off base. Back then, you had to use this kind of radio system to call the States, where there was a long delay after every word and you had to say "over" after you were done with a sentence. I tried and tried to call my husband, but never got through..I don't know to this day if it was the radio system or he just wasn't answering or what. It was hard to tell if you got a connection with all the background static. For all I know, he heard my voice and hung up. Probably did, the no-good &**@$#!!"

(Oh well-maybe the station manager didn't catch that)

In LaVern's absence, her husband had assumed the worst and had taken steps to have her declared dead! He had also assumed rights to all of her releases and contracts and was making a nice chunk of money from them. When LaVern tried through the U.S. embassy in Manila to get help in returning home, she found out that she was officially deceased. Months of appeals and paperwork were lost in the wartime shuffle, and LaVern started to give up hope. She became used to her little home in Olongapo City and her friends there and her job. " I decided to quit tearing myself up and accept the fact that I wasn't going home anytime soon. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go, seeing as my own husband just up and declared I was dead so he could make some money off of my records. He never even tried to find out about where I was or if I was alive. Who wants to go back to that?"

LaVern Baker ended up living and working in the Philippines for the next 22 years, until the day she decided it was time to be going back home. She used the more modern telephone facilities on base to call an agent in New York ("Cost me $18.00 a minute, so I had to talk fast!"), then walked into a little radio station and told her story to me on the air. In 1988, she made her triumphant return to the U.S., starring in Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary show at Madison Square Garden in New York. From there it was back to the world of success, with a musical track in the movie "Dick Tracy", a lead role in the Broadway musical "Black and Blue", a comeback record ("Woke up this Mornin'"), and a kick-ass appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival.

LaVern Baker believed in luck. " I've had the best and the worst of luck. I'm hoping that it's on the upswing this time." But you can't survive all that she has survived, then come back again successfully after 22 years without creating some of your own good luck. LaVern Baker was an inspiration to me with her personal toughness, her philosophical attitude, and her confidence in her own capabilities. She was not the type of woman to buckle under harsh circumstances or to walk around with a chip on her shoulder about the unfairness of life. She was a realist and a pragmatist who dealt with life as it came. "I just did what I had to do. Don't we all?"

No, we all don't. Some of us choose to be defeated under life's circumstances and just stop trying. Some of us get angry at the world and nurse that anger for the rest of their lives. LaVern Baker, to me, was the best kind of human being. She rolled with some hard punches, but she never gave up on herself or her world. Lavern Baker will always have a place in my heart as a true American heroine.

LaVern Baker died on March 10, 1997. Rest in peace, LaVern, and I hope your story helps others as much as it did me.