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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Lillie Bryant Howard awarded key to the city
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s
finally come, thank you Lord,” she sang.
Lillie Bryant Howard took to the
microphone after she was awarded the
key to the City of Newburgh this month.
The honor marked decades of civic service
and a more than 60-year career in music
that saw her rise to the height of fame in
the early part of the Rock and Roll Era.
“The voices of a million angels cannot
express my gratitude... I am a lucky
ladybug,” she sang, filling every corner
of Newburgh City Hall with her velvety
voice.
The recognition was “long overdue,”
city Councilwoman Genie Abrams said,
and then read from a proclamation
stating, “Whereas Lillie Bryant Howard
was born in this city 77 years ago, and
whereas Lillie Bryant Howard first began
singing at Ebenezer Baptist Church...
on behalf of the entire city council, we
hereby present the key to the city, on Dec.
11, 2017, to Lillie Bryant Howard.”
Young musical star
Inspired by Dinah Washington, Ruth
Brown, and Nat King Cole, at 14, Howard
“brought the house down at the legendary
Apollo Theater, singing Ruth Brown’s
signature song, “Mama He Treats Your
Daughter Mean,’” Abrams said. It was
the 1950s, and “Doo-Wop,” which relied
on vocal harmonies and straight-forward
melodies, was becoming popular.
Howard began singing at various
nightclubs. At age 17, she was asked
by writer-producers Bob Crewe and
Frank Slay to sing a song, together with
musician and singer Billy Ford, named
“La Dee Dah,” which became a smash-
hit success when it was later released
by Swan Records. The two formed the
duo Billy and Lillie, and went on to
sing the singles “Bells, Bells, Bells” and
“Ladybug,” which was later covered by
The Four Seasons.
The duo performed on Dick Clark’s
“American Bandstand,” “The Big
Record,” hosted by Patti Page, and “The
Joe Franklin Show.” Billy and Lillie
also performed a one-week gig at the
Apollo Theater and in a six-week tour
with Alan Freed’s Rock and Roll Show,
featuring Chuck Berry, Frankie Lyman
and other well-known musical acts. “I had
everything going for me,” said Howard, in
an interview with the Mid Hudson Times
this month.
The duo broke up in 1959. Howard
Billy and Lillie performing at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1958. The duo’s hit
singles “La Dee Dah” and “Lucky Ladybug” sold more than a million copies
returned to Newburgh in 1960, married
and became a home maker, caring for her
six children. When Howard’s marriage
broke up years later, she became a single
mother. She was forced to go on welfare in
order to feed her children, an experience
she described as “too humiliating for words.”
But, the experience provided the spark
for what would later become Howard’s
social and political activism. “I had
something inside of me that I wanted to
be the voice for others, who were unable
to speak out,” she said.
Lillie Bryant Howard’s long career in music
and civic service was recognized earlier this
month in a city hall ceremony presenting
her with the “Key to the City.” Community activism
She founded the Black Women’s
Community Service Club in 1967.
According to Howard’s website, the
club was started with a group of 12
women, and ran the first free breakfast
program in the city. With the help of
Orange County Community College, the
club brought the first mobile education
program to Newburgh, offering a high-
school equivalency program and business
skills training to women living in the
city. “That’s when I became politized,”
Howard said. She earned her high-school
diploma through the program, and later
took classes at Mount Saint Mary College.
As on stage, she stood out at home.
In the early 70s, she became the first
black woman to run for Newburgh City
Council. She didn’t win, but by 1974,
she was working as the tenant relations
assistant at the Newburgh Housing
Authority, making her the first black
woman to work for the housing agency.
Around this time, Howard served as
the education chairperson of the local
NAACP. She was instrumental in the
opening of Moody’s House, the city’s
first drug-rehabilitation center. She was
then appointed by Mayor George Shaw
Jr. to the Newburgh Narcotics Council.
Howard served as the co-chair of the city
Democratic Committee in the late 70s
and became the city’s first commissioner
of cultural affairs. She also wrote as a
columnist for the Hudson Valley Press.
Howard appeared on the “Joe Franklin
Show” several times before its last
broadcast in 1993. She hosted her own
talk show, “Lillie’s Point of View,” on
radio station WGNY during the 80s.
“I loved it,” Howard said. “I took to it
like a duck to water.”
Howard worked as campaign manager
for Audrey Carey, who, in 1991, was voted
in as City of Newburgh mayor and the
first black woman to be elected as a mayor
in the state. In 2007, Howard won the
Democratic primary to herself run for
mayor.
“I ran against Mayor Nick Valentine,”
Howard explained, the incumbent,
Republican mayor at the time. “It was a
close race. That left an impression on me.
So many people felt they wanted me to be
their mayor. It was beautiful, even though
I lost.”
More music, more advocacy
Howard’s musical focus began to shift
to jazz, gospel and the blues over the
years. She occasionally performs Billy
and Lillie hits , including a solo version
of “La Dee Dah.” Howard was a featured
performer, along with jazz vocalist Sheila
Jordan, in the off-Broadway production
of “The Beatnik Café” and performed
a tribute to Dinah Washington in East-
Coast nightclubs during the late 2000s.
Howard has performed in the Newburgh
Jazz Series at the Newburgh Waterfront
and regularly performs at Billy Joe’s
Ribworks. She currently serves on the
Newburgh Housing Authority Board of
Commissioners and on the city’s Police
Community Relations and Review Board.
She remains devoted to community
service and stays active in city politics.
“All roads lead to Newburgh,” she said,
speaking her thoughts on improving the
city. “We have the air, the roads, the
river... It’s a diamond in the rough.”
“What we don’t have is the love we
need between us,” she said at City Hall. “I
want to say to my city, we’ve got to come
together. We need to start working and
striving together to make our city become
what it can truly be.”