Macon Magazine

"I'd have people calling in from their job at the car wash, asking if they could wash Little Richard's limousine." In 1999, Ruth Sykes asked Little Richard if he would consider being Macon's Goodwill Ambassador for Tourism. Sykes, who spent 23 years with the Convention and Visitors Bureau (now known as Visit Macon), met Richard and his publicist a few years earlier at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame opening, and he responded to her query with an immediate yes – "and he wouldn't take a dime," Sykes said. Richard made himself available in every way he could, providing a fun headshot for promo materials, allowing a video crew to film a greeting from him, even recording voicemail messages and other snippets to be intermingled with his music when callers to the CVB were placed on hold. "It was always funny when you picked up a call and the caller said, 'Wait! Can you put me back on hold? I was listening to that!'" said Sykes. e next year, Little Richard was the featured entertainer for the Cherry Blossom Festival. To honor him, Sykes and her team toured the city with two of Richard's aunts, who told stories of the Macon places that had been important to him. "Little Richard was kind, funny, generous and so grateful to be officially part of his hometown's marketing efforts," said Sykes. HONORING HIS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Ava Henderson's family lived one street over from Little Richard in Pleasant Hill. Her great-aunt remembered Richard coming over and asking to borrow her Coty perfume and face powder. She let him, of course, and he'd leave, singing at the top of his lungs. Years later, Richard pulled up in his limo – this was during one of the periods when he'd left rock and taken up the ministry – to pay his respects when her great-grandfather passed. e kids were spellbound, especially when Richard took the time to wave goodbye to them. "We started screaming and waving right back," Henderson said fondly. "We were the talk of the neighborhood for a while." Little Richard came from humble beginnings, and throughout his career continued to proudly exemplify the city – and the neighborhood – that shaped him. at kind of representation is invaluable; nothing can replace the inspiration and motivation that comes when a child learns about the legendary, world-renowned career of someone who looks like they look and who used to live where they live. In 2017, Macon preserved an important part of history when we moved Little Richard's childhood home from Fifth Avenue, where it was in danger of demolition due to interstate expansion, to its current location on Craft Street. In 2019, the renovated home opened its doors as e Little Richard House Resource Center with the goal to serve and uplift the surrounding community and keep the spirit of Little Richard flowing. Now, thanks to Friends of the Little Richard House and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, Richard is going to get the statue he deserves. e two organizations recently partnered to create a fund that will enable a statue of Little Richard and a replica of his Hollywood Walk of Fame star to be built outside his childhood home. e fund also will be used to support music education for low- and middle-income students throughout Macon. Pleasant Hill is "a very warm place, a powerful place ... a place of realness, a spiritual place, a black African gifted place, and that is what Little Richard represented," said Friends of the Little Richard House board member George Muhammad. "is is the legacy that we have been given by the grace of God, and now we have a charge for the future generations." e goal is for the statue to be completed by Dec. 5, which would have been Little Richard's 88th birthday. Griffith Family Foundation Executive Director Tonja Khabir also will be partnering with the Little Richard House to offer community member-led tours of the singer's Pleasant Hill neighborhood. ree separate tours will showcase noteworthy and influential music history, educational icons and community figures. "e Little Richard House is such an asset to our community," Khabir said. "It continues to tell so many stories that are relevant to us all." 'YOU CAN'T DO WITHOUT LOVE' We're lucky to have even more visual representation of that great beauty in town. Last year, artist Chris Veal painted a wonderful wall- sized Little Richard on the side of Triangle Arts, an art space and ILLUSTRATION BY KRISTY EDWARDS "I DIDN'T GO BACK 'TIL THE FAME HAD DIED DOWN, AND NOW THEY'RE NAMING STREETS AFTER ME." - LITTLE RICHARD JUNE/JULY 2020 | maconmagazine.com 39

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