(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's Friday and time for StoryCorps. Lance Jackson desperately wanted to learn to play the organ when he was growing up near Atlanta in the early 1970s. So he convinced his music teacher, Mary Frances Early, to tutor him after school. More than 50 years later, they spoke at StoryCorps.
LANCE JACKSON: When I was a child, television soap operas had organ music.
(SOUNDBITE OF LANCE JACKSON'S "THE GUIDING LIGHT ORIGINAL THEME")
JACKSON: So when most young children would want to be outside playing, I'm watching the soap operas, not for the storylines, but there was organ music all day long.
(SOUNDBITE OF LANCE JACKSON'S "THE GUIDING LIGHT ORIGINAL THEME")
JACKSON: I just wanted to play so badly. You facilitated that for me.
MARY FRANCES EARLY: 'Cause you were zoned in on music. You were the kind of student that inspires teachers.
JACKSON: Well, I appreciate that. I remembered when you came over and told my mother that they should get me an organ. So my father arranged for an organ to be delivered. That was the greatest day of my life.
EARLY: I was very proud of you. But I was so glad that you didn't stop practicing at school.
JACKSON: Well, that was because the time I would spend with you after school was a respite. My father was abusive physically and emotionally. One day, I was so angry. And I remember, with every lick, I stared him in his eye. So the time I would spend with you meant less time I had to be at home. Did you know that?
EARLY: I didn't know the specifics, but I knew that you were troubled about something. And playing the organ gave you the peace of mind that you needed at that time.
JACKSON: And you will have my everlasting gratitude for that. You know, there were these flashes of kind things from my father, which always confused the hell out of me. How could you be so damn mean most of the time but also do things like getting that organ? As I got older, I figured it meant that he was proud of me.
EARLY: Of course he was. He just didn't know how to express it. So he did kind things that let you know that there's a human being inside that body.
JACKSON: Yeah. After studying the organ with you, when I turned 13, I was hired by a church. It got me out of my home. And that saved my life. And I thank you.
EARLY: You're welcome.
JACKSON: You're my very favorite teacher.
(SOUNDBITE OF LANCE JACKSON'S "YOU CAN'T BEAT GOD'S GIVING")
INSKEEP: Lance Jackson and Mary Frances Early. Their conversation is part of the StoryCorps Brightness in Black Project, archived at the Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF LANCE JACKSON'S "YOU CAN'T BEAT GOD'S GIVING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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