Traveling Shoes: The Story of Willye White, US Olympian and Long Jump Champion
226 Willye laced her track shoes and ran around the world While money and fancy mansions would never be her fate Willye won shiny medals and broke world records Her fast feet blazed a trail for track legends and champions like Carl Lewis Jackie Joyner Kersee and Brittney Davon Reese No matter where Willye lived or traveled across the globe Mississippi was her motherland the place that birthed her vision inspired her determination and set her soul in flight 1662 USA 104
With medals around her neck and luggage for the road the journey was not easy because life is filled with woe But if you follow Willye home or go back to the starting block lessons learned on the track point the way to victory Greenwood raised a champion Willye B. White
When I was born my father looked at me This is not my child BABY NEW YEAR December 31 1939 I came into the world before the clock struck twelve It was almost New Year's Day in Money Mississippi As Mama Willie marveled and gave me her first name Daddy Johnny sat in silence He studied me like a book Johnny White did not beam or coo with bubbling joy There I was his firstborn child a boggling mystery I was an oddball baby with green eyes and reddish hair My body was a lump of dark blue veins and light bright cocoa skin and said Willye B. White Mama Willie was pe can brown and Johnny was midnight black Anger filled my daddy's face He yelled This is NOT my child Mama Willie disagreed But her body was exhausted There was no energy to debate Time would reveal the truth Johnny White was my father I was his strange magnolia But there on New Year's Day he stomped and stormed from the cropper shack and vanished in the morning mist When I was a baby only three days old Mama Willie packed her bags and left me with her daddy Both of my parents ran away Rejection cuts like stone Forgiveness mends a broken heart Grace is the road to joy
