I’m not from Cranston originally; I was actually born in Johnston. I had a late aunt that lived in Cranston off of Oaklawn Avenue, and in the early ‘60s, we stayed with her and I had a dream vision about a home with an attic, and she had a home similar to [my current home] with an attic, and I kept it like a private thing for myself when I was younger. I must have been about maybe ten, and I wanted to stay in Cranston, but I guess it wasn’t the time yet. So, my late parents and I, we moved to Johnston, and I grew up there. My late husband, we lived in Providence because he was from Silver Lake. I lived with him for five years before we were married in 1974 and we got married in 1979 on the Fourth of July, and it’s been a continual celebration ever since. I continue to do what I do and keep his legacy alive, and there’s different things that have happened to me that are not circumstantial – I really do believe and feel that they’re by divine appointment. I keep a dream journal; I have dreams about him sleeping, and waking dreams. … He and I did a lot of community art and projects in Cranston for several years, and I started a cable TV show, and he was the director and I produced it. I’m also the artist and talent; I still do that now, but my son helps me and I was surprised because at first I didn’t think that he would, but it works out even better than I anticipated.

Tony and I, we were all over the state, and helped people as a community outreach, because I was also an international artist for a while – singer, songwriter, publisher, producer, but then I had immense hearing loss, but it was some good rock and roll! I loved every minute of it. So, what happened is that after I started painting – I’m also a freelance artist – my husband mentioned something about mime, pantomime. I said, “I don’t know, that’s a clown!” He said, “your character is the mime!” And I had a gig at Roger Williams Park carousel, and they had an upright piano and I was playing ragtime, jazz, bebop, anything in mime! People would come over and the kids would look under the piano and wanted to know how that was working; they thought it was like, nickelodeon, but it was actually me playing. Tony and I, we used to be here sitting in the dining room – I got his little memorial spot right there, that’s where he used to sit – and he would tell me ideas and we would practice mime routines together ... It is very unique for me to be a woman mime. It’s mostly men mimes, and so I began to develop this even better than I anticipated in spite of my hearing loss, because mimes don’t talk, and we don’t talk because it’s an art form. … And so, I was able to continue to develop that and I still do. ... Not only do I have a blast doing it, it makes me feel happy because thinking about all the times with Tony is a good way to turn my sadness into joy, and it’s truly good for the body, the mind, and the spirit.

I was also blessed inadvertently as a performing artist. I did travel around the United States and Europe; I performed in Italy, France, and Germany, and that was all like, between the 1980s and the 1990s. I was a country music indie artist … So, I had no qualms about, “I’m going to be left alone,” because Tony was very supportive when I was traveling around, and he was always here waiting for me. And now that he’s gone, I’m kind of waiting for him. And now that I talk, and he used to tease me, “you can talk when you’re in mime,” and I didn’t want to, but now I’m saying that you can talk, and now I’m talking to him and he’s listening on the other side, and that’s a good thing.

The whole part of my creative process, and a lot of the song ideas, were actually developed here [in Cranston], some on a train ride going back and forth to Nashville, that sort of thing. But I think that I was doing this stuff before some of the artists I see coming up now, and I had a brush of success with them. Also, talk about brush with success, I was able to meet a lot of famous artists. In fact, I did a gig at the 40th Anniversary of Rock and Roll with the late Jerry Lee Lewis, and I think I picked up some of the piano ideas when I played piano and guitar. ... Onstage, I got to be the backup singer for Jerry Lee Lewis with his sister, Linda Gail Lewis, and Kris Kristofferson was onstage! I couldn’t believe it, for me this was like, bigger than the Beatles, and I actually saw the Beatles in person in 1965, and I still get goosebumps about that. And in the audience was the late Sam Phillips and his son, and I did a song that I co-wrote with my producer at the time called, “My Baby Thinks He’s Elvis,” and I did it onstage and Mary Ann [Mobley], she was Elvis’s [co-star], she sees me moving on stage and she says, “there will be no twisting and moving and shaking on the stage!” and I went, “they said that to Elvis too!” but he was banned from the waist down, there’s children in the audience, but they loved it. I had to tone it down; I felt like Elvis on the Sullivan Show. But Sam Phillips and his son, they looked at me at one point and they said in the 1950s, Elvis would have loved what I was doing with that, and they would have included me as a Sun Studio artist.

The second season of this project has been made possible by the Rhode Island Department of Health and the efforts of the OneCranston Health Equity Zone of Comprehensive Community Action, Inc. in partnership with the Cranston Herald and Timothy McFate. The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Humans of Cranston participants do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the aforementioned parties. The presented stories are voluntarily provided, unpaid, and given verbatim except for correcting grammatical errors. 

Want to nominate a Cranston resident to be featured? Email JB at jfulbright@comcap.org.