autoBiography
I Was born and raised as Jeffery David Jr On A Farm In Plaisance, A Village In Southwest Louisiana. Around Ten Years Old I Learned To Sing The Songs “You Are My Sunshine And Makes No Difference Now”. Both Written And Popularized By Our Then Governor, Jimmy Davis. At Fourteen I Met A Voice Coach, Mrs. Martha Clary, Who Introduced Me To Big Band Music. Shortly There After, I Started My Own Show On Kslo Radio In Opelousas, Louisiana, And Sold The Time Of That Show To The Abdallas Clothing Store. I Stayed On The Airwaves Of That Station For About Two Years. When I Was Around 15 Years Old I Completed The Semi- Finals Of The Horise Height National Radio Talent Show But Dropped Out After My Voice Started To Change. By Sixteen, I Was Working Part -time As An Announcer For Kslo.
At Seventeen I Met A Little Cajun Beauty, She Was Fifteen At The Time And A Few Months Later I Asked Her Father For Her Hand In Marriage. The Big Man Looked Down At Me And Bellowed Out, Boy, You Better Go Home And Eat Some More Cornbread. I Came Back A Couple More Times To Similar Results. After She Turned Sixteen , He Finally Said Well If I Keep Saying No, You’ll Keep Pestering The Hell Out Of Me, So I Might As Well Say Yes. We Were Married Right After High School And Our Union Lasted Forty- Seven And A Half Years.
We Raised Four Wonderful Children And She Was Definitely The Mature One That Made Our Marriage Work. I Was Such A Lucky Young Man To Have Married Her. At Nineteen I Was Drafted For Military Service But Switched From The Army Draft, Just Before My Induction Date, To Enlisting In The Navy, Which Recruiters Promised That I Could Continue My Radio Career. Left My Bride With Her Parents While I Went To Boot Camp And When Completed We Drove Our Little 1952 Chevrolet Coupe To San Diego For Radio School. The Drive From Opelousas To San Diego Was 34 Hours.
I Was Too Macho To Let My Girl Drive, So I Stayed At The Wheel For The Entire Trip. Exhausted When We Reached Our Destination I Slept For Twelve Hours. Having Come Out First In My Class In Radio School. I Was Awarded The Choice Of Shore Duty. I Chose The Federal Office Building In San Francisco. After Settling In, I Took A Part-time Job Selling Colliers Encyclopedias. That Income Afforded Me To Supplement My Savings Account And To Pay Others To Stand My Military Watch While I Was Out Selling Books. After San Francisco I Was Transferred To A Submarine Rescue Vessel In Hawaii. We Weren’t Out To Sea Very Often, So I Joined The Fleets Boxing Team, Continued To Sell Colliers And Recruited A Couple Of My Ship Mates To Work For Me Selling Books, And Paid Others To Stand My Watch So I Could Sell When We Were In Port. This Allowed Me To Keep My Bride At My Side For The Entire Four Years.
After My Military Service I Spent Two Years Back In Lafayette Louisiana Working For Kvol Radio As Announcer, Newscaster And Salesman. After Two Years The Station Manager Still Would Not Pay A Commission On My Sales, Which Would Of Doubled My Salary, So I Resigned. In 1969 I Opened A Sales Office In Lafayette For Colliers And Took A Couple Of Announcers With Me. They Both Made Triple Their Salaries Selling Books Door To Door Then They Did As Announcers.
I Quickly Added To My Staff And Started Out-producing The District Office In New Orleans. Won A Trip For My Bride And I To The National Annual Meeting In Boca Raton, Florida. That Year I Was Promoted To Regional Manager Of New Orleans, Houston, Dallas And Oklahoma City. Within A Year I Saw Greater Possibilities In California, Opened An Office In Los Angeles And Moved My Family To Hidden Hills Where We Lived For 37 Years.
I Had A Great Life In That Guarded Gate Community With Horses And 35 Miles Of Trails To Ride Them On. We Also Had A Sand Covered Arena To Play Cowboy Polo, We Used Fiber Glass Mallets And A Soccer Ball. My Horse Mike Diamond Was Fantastic In That Sport. First Time I Played With The Team, I Went Bareback, They Told Me I’d Never Stay On My Horse And I Laughed And Said, Watch Me. Well, When My Horse Took His First Quick Turn For The Ball, I Hit The Sand. After That Fall I Rode Him Home And Came Back With A Saddle. The Team Got A Good Laugh At That. Our Children Had A Pony Club And Rode The Back Hills, With A Lunch Pack On Days Off From School. From Early Mornings Until Late Evenings, We Felt Perfectly Safe As They Were All Good Riders And Their Shetland Ponies Very Reliable. My Wife Was An Excellent Tennis Player And One Time Challenged Me On The Court. Needlessly To Say That I Didn’t Make A Single Point. Within A Few Short Years I Became Vice President Of The Company And In 1972 Branched Out To Start My Own Operation, Selling Financing And Collecting My Own Contracts With Offices On The West Coast, Hawaii And Japan.
The Rising Sun Country Was A Real Experience. My Wife Learned The Names Of Every Flower In The Gardens Of The New Otani Hotel Where We Stayed. Meanwhile I Called On Buddha Schools To Present Our Books And Early Childhood Japanese Material. I Didn’t Learn Much Japanese So I Always Had An Interpreter Along To Drive And Make The Presentations. I Only Handled The Sales In Japan, My Partner In Tokyo Was In Charge Of Financing. Didn’t Sing Again For Forty Years, But In 1992, My Beautiful Wife And I Went Into A Restaurant Where A Young Man Was Singing Karaoke. I Became Hooked And Recorded A Series Of Melodies Which I’m Now Passing On To My Grand Children. When My Wife Passed Away I Wrote A Song About Her, “My Juanita Marie”. I Recorded It, Along With Thirteen Other Love Song Favorites With The Big Band Of The Teddy Phillips Orchestra And Went On The Road Promoting My Music. I Traveled From California To New York Singing With Various Orchestras Along The Way.
I Sang With The Teddy Phillips Orchestra, The Arizona Big Band, The Sun Lakes Big Band, The Sentimental Swing Orchestra And A Small Quartet In New York. I Finally Settled In With The Sky liners An 18 Piece Orchestra Here In Lafayette Louisiana. I Stayed With The Sky liners For Over Five Years, Originally As A Vocalist And Eventually As Vocalist And General Manager I Remained A Widower For Five Years Until One Night My Old Friend Woody Sibille And His Wife Katherine Brought A Beautiful Widowed Lady, Kathleen May, To Hear Me Sing. I’ll Never Forget The Moment, I Was Singing, “You Belong To My Heart,” Woody Was Dancing With Her And Kept Facing That Beautiful Girl To Me. Her Smile Was Captivating. When I Finished My Song I Went To Get Her. After A Few Brief Encounters We Had A Four Hour Luncheon At The Riverside Inn Watching The Birds And Squirrels While We Talked About Our Spouses. It Was Then That We Both Figured Out, That If We Had Such Love, Then We Were Meant For Each Other.
After We Were Married For A Few Years, I Wrote And Recorded A Song About Her, “It’s So Wonderful”, The Words Of That Melody Described Our Life Together And I Was Very Proud To Have Her Sing Along With Me. Finally At Almost Eighty Eight Years Old, And In The Twilight Of My Life, I Wrote And Recorded Another Love Song About My Beautiful Kathleen, Titled “What A Wonderful Girl”. She’s Battling Dementia Now But Still Wakes Up With Such A Magnificent Smile That She Brightens Up My Life For The Rest Of The Day And Night. I’m So Thankful To Have Her As My Wife.