A LOVING
HEART
NEVER LACKED FOR LOVE
Wealth and riches are in his house (psalms 112:3)
Simon (also known as “Billy”to his family and “Si” to his friends) grew up dirt poor but lacked nothing in parental love and musical encouragement. Due to health reasons, Simon’s father (named Simon) could not work in the coal mines and became a bellhop at the Continental Hotel in Centerville, Iowa. From the age of 12, “Si” worked collecting rags and scrap metal, shining shoes, delivering papers and occasionally assisting his father carrying luggage at the hotel all in an effort to contribute to the family’s funds.
Although many whites refused to sell property to blacks in those days, Simon’s parents negotiated a price on a small house from a white farmer. The seller’s son was furious, but the farmer said he had “given his word to a decent man with a fine family” and the house was his, opening the door to the Estes’ first family home. It was a very modest home and didn’t even have running water or indoor plumbing until “Si” was 14.
LOVE IS TRULY COLOR BLIND
Simon Estes was the grandson of Major Estes, a freed slave who was sold for $500 at age 5 – $100 for each year. Simon grew up in Centerville, Iowa, a coal town founded by abolitionists. But at the same time, Centerville was also influenced by the Ku Klux Klan who still controlled one newspaper and all the county offices in the early 1920s. Simon’s father came to work in the mines along with the influx of many nationalities looking for work. Centerville was a melting pot not subject to the overt discrimination commonplace in cities with large black populations at the time.
With a wry smile, Simon intentionally uses the anachronistic term “colored” for shock effect, saying, “Up to the 3rd grade I was the only ‘colored’ kid in my class.” When one little white girl named Gayle was asked by another named Linda, “Do you like Simon Estes because he’s colored?” Simon recalls Gayle responding, “Well I just love him, I don’t care what color he is.” Simon says that he never realized he was black until it was brought to his attention by a 3rd grade classmate as an expression of love.
FIGHT A GOOD FIGHT AND GET INTO GOOD TROUBLE
When Simon was a child, Black people (Coloreds as they were called in those days) weren’t permitted to swim in the public pool. Eventually, they were allowed to swim only for two hours on Saturday morning from 9am to 11am at which time the pool would be disinfected even if they were still in the water! Black people were not allowed to eat in the BlueBird Cafe or the Continental Hotel restaurant. Similarly, Black people were only allowed to sit in the balcony of the town’s movie theater. One day when Simon was attending the theater with some white friends, they questioned why he always headed upstairs. They were totally unaware Black people couldn’t sit downstairs, so they told him to join them. He reluctantly agreed.
The manager saw Simon and said, “Colored people are not allowed to sit downstairs. You get up there where you belong, boy!” One of the teens who had a powerful father said, “No, he won’t. I’ll tell my dad you wouldn’t let Simon sit with us, and you’ll be fired.” The manager reluctantly acquiesced. After that, Simon and other Black people were allowed to sit downstairs. He didn’t realize the love his white friends had for him until that moment. And, he says they deserve the credit for helping him break down discrimination in Centerville that day in the early 1950s.
ONLY ONE RACE: THE HUMAN RACE
Simon has said that one of the high points of his career was singing for Nelson Mandela at Riverside Baptist Church in New York. Simon was inspired by Mandela’s speech, noting that he mentioned only “what needed to be done” without a single word about what had happened to him. After half a century of incarceration Mandela expressed no bitterness nor anger. He was the embodiment of everything Simon’s mother had taught him about faith and humility.
Mandela invited Simon to perform at the 2010 World Cup opening “Tribute to South Africa” in Johannesburg. There he learned about the scourge of malaria in South Africa and became engaged in the eradication of this illness. His “Nothing But Nets” campaign was endorsed by the governor of Iowa and then engaged in partnership with the UN Foundation. Fundraising efforts to purchase a $5 net for kids to sleep under have included donating the proceeds of a compilation CD called Save the Children, Save their Lives.
Save The Children SongINSPIRED BY LOVE OF FAMILY
Children are a heritage from the Lord, and our offspring a reward from him. (Psalm 127:3)
Despite all the fame, success and world travel that Opera provided, Simon will tell you that he always preferred time at home with family. Simon was influenced by his mother’s steadfast faith and love of music and inspired by his father’s humility and unfailing work ethic. These were the traits that he most wanted to pass along to his daughters Jennifer, Lynne, and Tiffany.
