[Hey! This was sent by accident before the Good Part was written]

Jester Hairston liked to call other Hairstons. When he arrived in Los Angeles, he called Pat Hairston [who turned out to be a while lady] and they started what became a lifelong friendship. My parents were musicians of sorts, and pretty soon Jester and my parents became friends. One night Jester took the whole Hall Johnson [West] chorus to our house, and they sand many songs!

Jeter later returned in 1954 and 1956 when my sister and brother were presidents of the Concert Choir at John Marhsall High. He gave a lecture about sprituals, then passed out music to the choir who then sang then (and well) for the first time. What a lot of music!

When he visited Delaware, where my family is now, in about 1985, I met him for breakfast and he told me these anecdotes. He was living in Harlem and only had a nickle, which he used to go to mid-town to try out for a show. They called basses first. He tried out and was not chosen. The basses left, he stayed. Baritones followed. Jester tried out and wasn't selected. The baritones left, but Jester stayed. Then tenors were called. He wasn't selected as a tenor. The tenors left. He stayed. Then Irish tenors. He wasn't slected as an Irish tenor, either, but the upshot was that they wanted him in the show, not to sing, but to arrange and work with the chorus. I forget how he got back home that day.

Another time in New York, he was on a boat in the harbor which cracked into another boat, and one of them was going to sink. The people on Jester's boat had to get on to the one that was going to stay afloat. As he got on someone from the other boat called him: "Ink!" the guy said (becasue jester had very dark skin). Jester looked around, and here was this waiter, a fellow Jester had known years earlier. "Slew!" Jester said (this guy walked with his feet pointing left and right instead of straight ahead, thus the nickname). A sinking ship brought two old pals together.

In college, he told me, he was a quarterback. I asked him why he didn't play at the University of Pittsburgh, in the city where his family was. Dopey question. They wouldn't let him on the team there. Pittsburgh's loss.

[My daughter asked him some questions about his life after she met him, which he answered on tape. If there is any interest there, I can make a duplicate and send it to you.]