David’s matchmaking service is open for business.
A good friend would like to meet the man pictured above, supposedly an unmarried resident of Sun City Anthem.
If you know or recognize this person and would like to help make a connection, please contact me privately.
Note: This story has been slightly revised from its first posting to reflect the fact that the show described in the original article has already been presented.
Sun City Anthem resident Richard Hampton is an impostor.
A counterfeit.
A pretender.
Yet people love him for it, and they pay for the privilege of letting him fool them.
Hampton, you see, is a celebrity impersonator. Not just any celebrity, but Kenny Rogers, chosen in a joint poll of readers of USA Today and People Magazine as the “Favorite Singer of All-Time.” Friday evening, Feb. 20, Richard performed as Kenny Rogers for a sold-out audience in Freedom Hall.
As you can see from the photo below, Richard bears an uncanny similarity to the legendary Rogers. Unlike some celebrity impressionists, he has undergone no surgery to modify his features, and he comes onstage having added just a few sprays of hair whitener to enhance the resemblance.
The similarity to the iconic Rogers doesn’t end with the look. Close your eyes and listen to Hampton speak, and you will swear it is Kenny himself who is talking. Combine that with a singing voice --no lip-synching-- that perfectly evokes the raspy Rogers vocalisms and you have almost the complete package. The only real differences are that although Hampton is an excellent singer, he does not read music and does not play an instrument, and Rogers is seven years older than the 63-year-old SCA resident.
I’ve often wondered how a person such as Richard gets into the business of impersonating celebrities. “I can’t imagine,” I said to him, “that you or anyone else in that profession would have such aspirations as a child.”
“You’re right,” Richard says. “I think each impersonator has their own story of how their career evolved, and mine is unlike any other.”
Hampton’s story is indeed a special one, the tale of a man who overcame a difficult childhood and found a calling in life that suits a person who loves people and thoroughly enjoys the pleasure he brings to his audiences.
He was born to an unwed mother, who abandoned him literally on the doorstep of friends when he was only one month old. The couple who took him in were named Hampton, so that became Richard’s surname. But the man he thought was his father was abusive, and when the couple’s marriage broke up while Richard was still a young boy, he was placed in a Kansas City boys’ orphanage, where he remained until age 18. He did not learn until he was 16 that the Hamptons were not his real parents. He never met his birth mother, who he learned died when he was about 20, and he never knew who his real father was because the father’s name listed on his birth certificate was not that of his actual father, but that of a friend of his mother who allowed his name to be on the birth record.
The orphanage where Richard grew up was a 400-acre farm where the children learned about farm work and self-reliance. “The kids at the orphanage became the brothers I never had,” Richard says, “and many of us formed strong bonds that exist to this day. I stay in fairly regular touch with about 30 of them, and to this day a dozen or so orphanage alumni, myself included, get together annually in Missouri for golfing and fellowship.”
Richard was studious and athletic, and had his choice of four college scholarships, eventually earning a degree in business from Central Missouri State University. Throughout his life, especially when work as a celebrity impressionist was sporadic, he worked in many jobs, mostly in sales and marketing. After two relatively short marriages that produced four children, he and his wife Cheryl, a retired AT&T vice president, have been married 31 years. “My life with Cheryl,” he says, “is far and away the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The other wonderful thing that happened to Hampton, of course, was the Kenny Rogers period of his life. “The first time I recall being compared to Kenny,” he says, “was on a family ski vacation to Aspen, Colorado, when I was in my early 40s. Rogers was in his prime, though he has never really gone out of style, and people were coming up to me and saying I resembled him, or else they actually thought I was Kenny himself.”
On one occasion, Richard volunteered to assist Cheryl at the AT&T Senior Open Golf Tournament in Denver. A security guard at the tournament, bowled over by his facial and vocal resemblance to Rogers, urged him to contact Annie Maloney, a friend who was a prominent local talent agent.
More curious than eager, Hampton called Annie Maloney. “’My God,’ she told me over the phone, ‘you sound exactly like Kenny Rogers,’ and she insisted that I come over to her house the next day. I did that, and when her son greeted me at the door, he did a double-take and said, ‘Mom’s gonna LOVE you!’”
Maloney offered him a job singing a few days later at an auto show with other celebrity impersonators. “She said she could offer me only $400 for the job,” Richard recalls, “and I remember thinking to myself, ‘ONLY $400?’ It was like money had fallen from the sky!”
What Richard also remembers about that first job is that he was scared to death. He was casually familiar with many of Kenny Rogers’ songs, but his only real singing experience was a cappella style at the orphanage. “I taught myself to sing ‘The Gambler’ for that show, and my knees were shaking like you wouldn’t believe. But the reaction was enthusiastic applause, so that did it for me. My new career was launched.”
There were times in his Kenny Rogers life when it was virtually a full-time profession. Annie Maloney and other agents got him lots of corporate work, which he still does, and in recent years he even appeared as a performer for several months on the Las Vegas Strip, as a cast member of the show “Going Country” at the Riviera.
Richard is accustomed to being mistaken for his idol. “I can’t go anywhere in public without people coming up to me,” he says. “Many times, no matter what I tell them, they are sure that I am Kenny, out on the town and trying to remain incognito.”
Kenny Rogers knows who Richard is, and has been complimentary to him. “I’ll never forget the first time we met,” Richard says. “He was performing at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks, Nevada, and I was brought backstage to meet him after his show. He came out of his dressing room, saw me standing across the way, and said to me, ‘You know, you’re a fine looking man.’ ‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ I replied.”
Living la vida Kenny Rogers is not always a solitary life. Celebrity impersonators abound: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Willie Nelson, Elton John, the list goes on and on. There is an umbrella organization for these performers, and several companies, notably one called Classique Productions and another called Crooners Unlimited, arrange bookings for individual impersonators and combinations of them. So they are frequently in touch with each other.
Richard added a special treat for his Sun City Anthem show. His good friend CJ King flew in from Florida to perform as Patsy Cline and Connie Francis. “Wait until you hear HER sing,” Richard had promised; he was right, as CJ added a significant "wow factor" to the show. And the fact that both performers encouraged the audience to sing along with the tunes added to the happy atmosphere in the hall.
Just like Kenny Rogers, Richard Hampton stayed to greet his audience after the show. Dozens took a few minutes to meet and chat with one of our nicest residents, who had just given them 90 minutes of great entertainment.
You’ll certainly want to say hello to Kenny ....oops, I mean Richard, if you encounter him anywhere in the community. I have a hunch you'll recognize him on sight.
Your Sun City Anthem neighbor, Richard Hampton.
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This is the second in our open-ended Meet Your Neighbor series. Contact me if you know of an interesting SCA resident, preferably one who is lesser known in the community, whose story would make interesting reading.
For the first installment of this new blog series, Meet Your Neighbor, I am pleased to introduce you to Mary McKinney Edmonds, PhD., who has resided in Sun City Anthem since February, 2007. In this historic inauguration week for Barack Obama, our 44th President of the United States, I hope you will agree, after reading about Dr. Edmonds, that she is especially worthy of having her story told at this time in history.
This gracious, soft-spoken lady of great accomplishments, just Mary or Dr. E to her friends, comes from a family that placed a high premium on education. An educator and administrator, health-care practitioner, researcher and organizational leader, she has earned five degrees and a post-doctoral certificate. She is a close personal friend of Condoleezza Rice, and her family has a long friendship with the family of Martin Luther King, both senior and junior. Mary's entire adult life has been devoted to the education and betterment of others, including students and minorities, and especially black women.
Here is Mary's inspiring story:
One of four children, she and her twin sister Virginia were born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1932. Her parents, Rev. Wade Hampton McKinney and Ruth Berry McKinney, both descended from slaves, were religious and civic leaders in the Cleveland area. Rev. McKinney, an acclaimed orator, came to Cleveland in 1928 from a pastorate in Flint, Michigan, and over the next 35 years he built membership at Antioch Baptist Church from 700 to more than 3,000.
At an early age, Mary learned to understand and build friendships with people of different beliefs. When she was six, her family integrated a Jewish neighborhood, which she found to be a rich experience. "I had many Jewish friends," she says, "and I vividly remember going over to Orthodox Jewish homes during the Sabbath to turn light switches on and off for them."
A clue to the origin of Mary's lifelong commitment to community service can be found in a description of her father in a documentary and oral history project called Praying Grounds: African American Faith Communities:
Just as important as his church leadership is his record of service to the Greater Cleveland community. ...In 1931 he delivered a speech titled "While Cleveland Sleeps!" in which he described the "Negro Problem" as a human problem. and urged the city's leaders to move beyond issues of race to treat it as such. He described the frustration experienced by the city's many social service and religious organizations, as they tried to combat the crime and other social ills that appeared to be engulfing Cleveland's predominantly African American Central community. ...He also criticized Depression-era social welfare programs that often did more harm than good by implementing relief programs that "kill one's self respect.." He went on to say that "no program of family relief is worthwhile unless it gives mental as well as physical relief," and urged "Christian leaders to seek a new approach to this problem of family relief."
I mentioned above that Mary's family placed a great premium on education. As just one example, her father taught the Canterbury Tales in Old English to his children when they were small, and all the children were required to learn and play musical instruments. "On Sunday evenings," she told the Stanford University News Service, "we would have little family concerts. I took violin lessons for many years, my sister played cello, and my two brothers played clarinet and bass violin. It was a wonderful childhood."
The McKinney and Martin Luther King families had a close relationship. Rev. King Sr. and Mary's father both went to Morehouse College in Atlanta and became ministers. Their respective sons, Samuel and Martin Jr., went to Morehouse College and graduated within one year of each other. While a student at Antioch College in Ohio, before she met Martin Jr., the future Coretta Scott King attended Mary's father's church while doing an internship in Cleveland.
It was a proud moment for the McKinney family when Mary and her sister Virginia graduated at the top of their Spelman class in 1953. Mary earned a bachelor's degree in biology and was class valedictorian, just edging out her sister, who was salutatorian.
Pictured from left to right in the graduation photo below are Mary's brother, Wade H. McKinney III; Mary; Rev. McKinney's sister-in-law Mary Berry; Rev. McKinney (who delivered the benediction); Mary's mother Ruth; Rev. McKinney's sister-in-law Ada Berry; Mary's sister Virginia; Mary's brother Samuel.
Shortly before her Spelman graduation, Mary observed the physical therapy needs of polio patients and chose to pursue physical therapy as a career. So she attended the University of Wisconsin and earned her post-graduate certificate in physical therapy in 1954.
Sadness entered Mary's life when she was 28 and her husband drowned while trying to save two friends whose boat had capsized. Mary was four months' pregnant with her first and only child, Jacque, when she lost her husband, but she was determined to continue her education. She went on to earn a master's degree in health studies; master's in sociology; doctorate in sociology with specialization in medical sociology and social gerontology; post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan.
A summary of Dr. Edmonds' experience, awards, publications and organizations would run to about a dozen pages, so I'll tell you about only a small portion of her incredible accomplishments.
Chairman, Department of Health Sciences and Associate Professor with Tenure, Cleveland State University.
Dean, College of Health and Community Services, Bowling Green State University.
Vice President for Student Affairs at Bowling Green.
Clinical Professor, Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University.
Vice Provost and Dean for student Affairs Emerita, Stanford University.
Special Assistant to the President, Spelman College.
Mary has authored more than 80 publications and professional papers, with topics ranging from "Mentoring the Next Generation of Higher Education Administrators," to "Cultural Diversity and Sensitivity," to "Social Class and the Functional Health Status of the Aged Black Female." She has traveled and lectured widely, consulting and/or teaching in England, South Africa, Brazil, China and Yugoslavia.
In 1992, Mary was appointed Vice President for Student Affairs at Stanford. Dr. Condoleezza Rice became Provost at Stanford the following year, and the two worked well as a team. They developed a deep friendship and communicate regularly by phone to this day. "As many know," Mary says, "Condi Rice is an accomplished pianist, but she had let her skills lapse a bit and it was at my encouragement that she resumed practice. As a result, she is now a classical pianist of note"
When I visited with Mary, she showed me several framed photographs. One of the them shows Mary with Condoleezza Rice at the British Embassy when Condi's 50th birthday was celebrated, and another, which I found very moving at this time when our new President is beginning his daunting journey, is of Mary with civil rights heroine Rosa Parks.
Mary's presence in the local minority community has become well known during her short time in SCA, as she has just been accorded a page in the 2009 edition of Who's Who in Black Las Vegas.
I related earlier how Mary, four months pregnant, was left a future single mother when her husband died in a tragic accident. Mary's daughter, Jacque Edmonds Cofer (left), is a living tribute to her family's long commitment to education and personal achievement; Jacque is a Princeton graduate and holds a Harvard M.B.A. She is a television producer and writer who has won many honors, including an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Program, "Martin," and she currently operates her own film-production company.
Jacque says this about her mother:
My mother has been an inspiration to me in everything I've done. She was a role model to me from an early age. When I was about 2 years old, she began working on her masters degree. I believe that instilled in me a love of study and the discipline to work hard toward my goals. My mother has also embraced change. She has lived all over the country and traveled the world. Many of my friends were amazed that she was eager to relocate from Atlanta to Las Vegas at the age of 74. I was not surprised; she has always gone for the best opportunity and moving to Nevada was an opportunity to have a healthier life. She has always been supportive, loving and encouraging towards me and that's why I have been able to achieve what I have. In short, she's the best mother I could ask for and I love her very much.
Mary's greatest pleasure in life is that she has served as a guide and teacher, as well as an inspiration, for others. "My motto is simple," she says: "If I can do it, you can do it, and I will show you how."
I asked Mary how she feels about seeing the dream of a black man as President realized. "This is not a victory just for blacks," she said. "It is a victory for all people of every race and background, who now have proof that they can achieve greatness if they prepare well and work hard for it."
Mary feels blessed that her sister and two brothers are still alive. Brother Wade, a former Urban League executive and U.S. Postal Service administrator, was one of the Second World War's famed Tuskegee Airmen. Brother Samuel had a distinguished career as a minister in his own right. And twin sister Virginia, who holds a PhD., is a child psychologist.
Dr. Mary McKinney Edmonds ...your Sun City Anthem neighbor.
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