From the Archives: Singing Unto The Lord
It's little more than half a mile from New Hope Baptist Church to Prince Memorial CME. About 10:45 a.m. every Sunday, Pauline Thomas leaves New Hope, where she is a member, after Sunday school to play piano and lead the choir at Prince Memorial.
She's been driving that half-mile for 10 years. She doesn't expect to stop any time soon.
Thomas wakes up at 6:30 a.m. March 29, and like many Sundays before, arrives in the main sanctuary of New Hope a little before 9:30 a.m. She helps take, count and record tithes and offerings at church, and before the Sunday school class starts, churchgoers pass cash and checks to her. A small boombox plays contemporary Christian songs.
Jeff Brazzell, superintendent of Sunday schools, switches the boombox to "Touch the Hem of His Garment," by the Soul Stirrers, the classic gospel group fronted by Sam Cooke in the late '50s. The music signals a shift in the room's mood. The churchgoers are ready to worship.
Thomas stands up from her seat near the middle and walks to the piano at the front. Until now, she's been mostly quiet, save for polite conversation with a few churchgoers. And then, she sings.
The song is "O How I Love Jesus," and her voice is indescribably sublime, rich with emotion and nuance. She plays the piano notes declaratively, using grace notes between the chords.
With her words and her fingers, she is offering the song into the highest reaches of heaven.
"You wouldn't know from talking to her that she has that voice inside her," Brazzell says. "She is so modest- she's not seeking any fame."
Thomas is often reserved in public, but her voice is incredibly expressive.
Thomas, who turns 64 this July, is dressed in a red jacket. She's quiet and dignified. She says she used to get nervous when she performed in front of people.
"I learned to just close my eyes and focus on the words of the song." she says.
She returns to her seat for the lesson, a passage from Ezekiel.
Patrick Jefferson, a New Hope churchgoer, teaches the lesson, and he encourages the 12 or so people in the room to comment. Thomas doesn't talk, but she takes detailed notes and nods her head when Jefferson or a classmate says some- thing she agrees with.
She sneaks out of the class at 10:45 a.m. As I'm getting in my car to follow her to Prince
Memorial, Curtis Jefferson, the New Hope pastor, runs out the door to talk to me. "I just wanted to tell you that Pauline is a very dedicated Christian woman who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ," Jefferson says.
In fact, at both churches, people will line up to tell me a Pauline story. How she visited their sick mother regularly until she passed away. How her voice is as beautiful as that of any professional gospel singer. How valuable her quiet direction of the choir is.
"I was not always that comfortable with myself," Thomas says. "The older I get, the easier it gets, though.
GETTING IN TUNE
Bible study finishes up around 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Prince Memorial. Choir practice is set to begin after the study is over. Thomas is quietly going through her notes, running over the songs the choir will be practicing
She takes great care in selecting songs for both churches. Her choices tend to revolve around recurring themes, specifically heaven, prevailing over trouble and trusting Jesus in times of trouble. "I focus on the ministry of the songs," she says, "to take things one day at a time."
When the choir sings for the elderly or for nursing-home residents, she picks older, more familiar hymns. In church, though, she usually chooses gospel music from the last 100 years.
There are nine choir members, who laugh and joke as they work through the songs. The choir is mainly older women, but there are two men. Thomas keeps the choir on task, bringing it to focus by starting each song,
"She knows how to teach us a song," says Virginia Green, Thomas' cousin and the Prince Memorial choir president, "and I've never seen her angry. She's always the same person."
In the past, when Thomas occasionally couldn't make it to Prince Memorial, she recorded tapes of her singing and playing piano to be played during the service.
"It made it seem like she was there with us," says the Rev. C.L. Giles, pastor at Prince Memorial.
The church bought the baby grand piano in the corner of the sanctuary for her. "She has been a lifeline for us. Giles says. "We didn't have a pianist before her."
Thomas says she wants to improve as a pianist, but it would be hard to notice any insecurity from the way she presses the keys. Her voice is the main attraction, but her piano playing stands on its own.
RCA VICTOR
Thomas grew up in a Christian family. As a girl, she went to Prince Memorial. She says she discovered her voice when she started singing at LM. Terrell High School in Fort Worth, where she was bused from Weatherford. She graduated in 1962.
While in high school, she started singing around Fort Worth and Weatherford with her sister, Ida Sneed, and her cousin, Geraldine Gratts.
"If there was a piano around, they would be at it singing and playing," Green remembers.
Geraldine (now Geraldine Turner) remembers that the trio would practice unceasingly, trying to the hone the right sound on popular pop and R&B hits from the early '60s. "We were always dedicated to practicing," Turner says, "and Pauline had such a wonderful and sweet voice-it matched her personality so well."
Turner and Thomas still keep in touch and share their love of music.
Thomas has even sent Turner cassettes of her singing songs like the gospel classic "Miracles and Blessings."
Turner plays the tapes in her car. "It's so good to hear her sing." Turner says.
Thomas' husband, B.J. Thomas, whom she married in 1965 when she was 20, played drums in a Weatherford jazz group called Little Eddie & the Rays. He's a professional drummer, as is Thomas' youngest son, Jason Thomas, 35. Her oldest, Sean Christopher, (who performs under the name Sean Kristopher) plays 13 instruments and writes. country music.
RCA Victor signed Pauline to a record deal in 1963 or 1964 (she doesn't remember exactly when), and she and B.J. moved to Nashville. But work was scarce. Pauline worked as a beautician and B.J. worked in the mailroom of RCA Victor.
"It was the first time in my life I ever went hungry," Thomas says.
It was also the end of her career as a professional musician. They came back to Weatherford in 1966.
Pauline went to work in a beauty salon.
"Somebody dropped the ball," Brazzell says. "If they could revisit, I would imagine they would do some things differently."
While Thomas grew up in a religious family, she feels she personally became a Christian in 1970.
The Thomases joined Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington, where she sang in the choir. The family drove in from Weatherford to Mount Olive, and their involvement sometimes lasted all day. The family would pack a lunch. Jason played drums in the youth department at age 6. Pauline has been singing in church ever since.
She doesn't regret the way her career turned out. She loves to sing and play music in church. "I'm satisfied with where I am," she says. "This is where I'm meant to be."
She would still like to do some studio work, though, which she enjoys. "I was never much for the stage, though."
At church, she can move the congregation with her voice.
"Depending on what day it is, she just strikes that chord," Brazzell says. "I have to brace myself."
