Miss Phillips began her litany of instructions. The family terrier, Butch, quit eating after Cynthia’s death and soon died. Those who arrived first saw one teenage girl lying still on the pavement and another motionless on the platform. “I’m sorry,” he said to the crying girl, and gave her his handkerchief. Silence overtakes her. Farther north, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a stooped and wiry 73-year-old woman with very bad hearing passes her days with her small dog in an apartment beside a golf course where she used to play daily before her back gave out. Immediately upon arrival, we will check in at the Baker Hotel. And sometimes they, unlike former congressman Combest and many others, return to Memphis for high school reunions. Tooter’s father parked the bus on Pennsylvania Avenue. He simply walked over to Kathy Phillips and wrapped his arms around her shaking body and held her for a long time. Streams of pennants flapped overhead. When she brings up that day fifty years ago, the doctors thoughtfully nod. “You’re wearing the same uniform as those girls!” he told them. She stepped out onto the platform on her crutches. Eventually, Mr. Combest remarried and, in 1959, moved his family west to the Panhandle. This was co-written by Robert Fleischman, the band’s original choice of vocalist when they moved into a more commercial direction. The most visible reminder of the tragedy was, of course, the Combest family, reeling from two deaths. Feature Wheel in the Sky Fifty years ago this month members of the Memphis High School marching band traveled to Dallas to perform at the State Fair. WHEN DID MEMPHIS SUCCUMB ALTOGETHER? When they do, they talk about what wasn’t talked about before—about grief and harsh dreams and lost youth. Kay was a tall, skinny girl with glasses and a ready, toothy grin—well liked but also relatively new in town and somewhat shy, certainly not one to chase the boys of Lakeview and Estelline in the manner of Cynthia’s frisky gang. Sometimes the three of them get together. Barbara invited her over for a slumber party. 2.5K likes. Some of them tried to fix her up on dates. He speaks forlornly of "running down [a] dusty road" and admits, "I can't take this very much longer." Wheel In The Sky A Tribute to Journey - WITS. Featuring the outstanding vocals of Prince Drew, backed by the Rhythm Brothers, Don & Ron Fincher, J.W. People walk with limps. She also used to raise pygmy goats, and before that ran a dog-grooming salon. Where once the townsfolk were all too eager to build and spruce up, new construction and renovation are scarce since, as one lifelong resident puts it, “Everyone’s statement is, ‘It won’t be long before someone tears it up.’” A meth lab was discovered operating in the county. They have not spoken to one another in years, and only one of them—Kay Leslie McCarty, the woman with the limp—still lives where they once knew one another, in the Hall County town of Memphis. Kay Leslie came home two months after the accident, just before Christmas. Another tumbled straight down through the metal apparatus. But nearly everyone else in town crammed the pews and otherwise formed a ring around First Methodist Church. Miss Phillips told them not to bother. But by 1955, the band was the hottest thing going on campus. Those who reached the third girl were stunned to see her spring to her feet and cry out, “Where’s Cynthia? Line up at the end zone at seven-thirty. BACK AT THE HOTEL WITH THE AILING BAND MEMBER, Miss Phillips answered the phone. Perry brought them concise songs with big hooks, but he also delivered a signature vocal sound, first heard on "Wheel In The Sky." Especially in the position I was in. Urgent sounds from the far side of your mind. Miss Phillips sat outside Kay’s room. Is she okay? April 9, 1977 - Palladium. —Linda “Tooter” Sturdevant McCreary, class of 1959. The Memphis kids gaped. Kathy Phillips was the reason. Is Kay Leslie your student?”, Miss Phillips nodded. I couldn’t make any mistakes. On April 8th, 1978 “Wheel in the Sky” was released as a single and reached number 57 … Everyone from the town has a different answer. But Memphis remained comfortable in its plain skin. And they continued to torment the Memphis boys with their out-of-town preferences. Ouida Massey Bradshaw lives in Fort Worth, Barbara Allen Thomas near Tyler, Linda “Tooter” Sturdevant McCreary in Mead, Oklahoma. Cynthia!”. “Come on, Kay,” one of them said to a third girl. She’s always trying to help that other girl in the dream. Return their instruments to the bus and then have supper. Barbara agreed. Several of them retreated to their hotel rooms, where they contented themselves with leaning out the windows and chunking ice and water balloons at the passersby below. New York City, NY - Starcastle, Steve Gibbons Band April 10, 1977 - Orpheum Theater. And the woman who was once a girl dubbed Tooter, who twirled a baton through the bustle that is no more, has seen a divorce from her husband, the death of her daughter, and a career in banking that has improbably delivered her to an office in Dallas that sits a short drive down Interstate 30 from the fairgrounds where Cynthia fell. Until two years ago, he represented the U.S. congressional district for which George W. Bush unsuccessfully ran in 1978 and presided as chairman of the House agricultural committee. The cotton merchants kick their boots against the curb as they forecast the summer weather. And when I go back, sure, it saddens me. On October 11, 1956, a year to the day after the accident, the band director went to the cemetery with a bunch of flowers. Fifty years ago this month members of the Memphis High School marching band traveled to Dallas to perform at the State Fair. The night is always darkest before the dawn and i think that is the message trying to be conveyed by this song. But what to do with that fact? He said nothing this day either. But I can look around and always feel at home. There were bootleggers and infidels. Because, you see, I can go back in time . The operator stopped the ride. Not that we did that much wrong. Wheel in the sky, journey, journey, journey Winter is here again oh Lord I haven't been home in a year or more Well I hope she holds on a little longer I sent a letter on a long summer day Made of silver, not of clay I've been runnin' down this dusty road Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin' I don't tell where I'll be tomorrow Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin' Though his mother and his sister are buried in the local cemetery, Larry Combest doesn’t visit Memphis anymore. Recorded in 1977 and released on their fourth studio album Infinity, "Wheel In The Sky" was perhaps Journey's first big hit and it helped catapult the band to it's stadium rock God status they enjoyed throughout much of the late 70's and 80's. The good people of Memphis locked their car doors when they drove on the other side of the tracks through Morningside, where their domestic help lived—Negroes who sat in the movie theater balconies and were schooled in a little building underwritten by a liberal white doctor. 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