Fact #31238

Leva Mae Penniman : Bud would always pick the boys' names and I always picked the girls. And we always got pretty names. Charles was the plainest name of the lot. Peggie was called Elnora. I didn't like that name so well, but my mother-in-law, she liked it, so I went along with it. I always called her Peggie, but I didn't let Bud's mother know that!

Little Richard : My daddy was a very independent man. We weren't a poor family and we weren't a rich family. Daddy provided for us and we had the things that normal children should have, such as a bicycle and things of that nature. We didn't beg. We went to school dressed neat. Our house was clean and at Christmas we had everything.

My daddy was one of those progressive types of people. Everyone else had gas lamps... we had electric light. My daddy's family wasn't educated like my momma's, though. My momma came from a family that was wealthy and educated. A very fair-skinned set of people, I think there was Indian blood in them. My nanny had long silver hair down to here and high cheekbones. My mother's daddy was real light and had white silver hair too. When you look at Mother you can see it.

Leva Mae Penniman : When Charles was two and my first daughter, Peggie, was one, Richard was born. It was Monday afternoon December 5, 1932. He was the biggest baby I ever had, ten pounds at birth. A big boy. A fine boy. We named him Ricardo Wayne, but it was never put on his certificate like that. They wrote down Richard Wayne, and I guess I never had sus enough to check it out and make 'em straighten it up right. So I don't worry about it. His name is Richard after my daddy.

Little Richard : When I was a little bitty boy, Grandaddy had a big old electric range, where everybody else had woodburning stoves, and two living rooms with glass doors. That's the house my momma was raised in. I remember the first time I went there. I couldn't believe it. I used to love to go there and just look. Everything was so cool. He had a bathtub the water ran into. At our home, we was still bathing in two little tin tubs.

Leva Mae Penniman : After Richard there was Marquette de Lafayette. I thought that was pretty. Then Walter Maurice, he's named after Bud's daddy, Then Horace Dearcy, who we called Tony, and then Robert Realdo. Then came Silvia, my sec- ond girl. I had six boys before she was born. She's named Leva La Leda. Then there's Elaine, Artis Elaine, then Gail June. And my last girl, Peaches, who's really named Freka Diedra. I made that up. I wanted a name I had never heard before. And last of all there was Peyton. Peyton Larry. He was born on his dad's birthday, the fifth of April. That was a good thing to happen, because Bud was dead by then.

Little Richard : My mother had all these kids, and I was the only one born deformed. My right leg is shorter than the left. I didn't realize that my leg was small. I never knew about it. Yet looking back, I can see why my mother and them was always, so careful about me. ..cos they knew something I didn't. My mother used to let me get away with so much. I lived through a lot, and a lot of it was the way I walked. The kids didn't realize I was crippled. They thought I was trying to twist and walk feminine. But I had to take short steps cos I had a little leg. I used to walk with odd strides,

Leva Mae Penniman : Richard was the most trouble of any of 'em. He was very mischievous, always getting up to tricks. He got a lot of whippings. He didn't get whipped for everything he did, mind, or he wouldn't be here now, cos he did something nearly all the time!

He liked to do little mischievous things. If he did anything and he could get out of it he would. He'd just say he didn't do it. Well, you have to think for yourself. You're always supposed to understand your children - you'd know just about what they would do or what they wouldn't do.

I remember one time which I regretted so bad. I was pregnant... I think it was with Tony (I was pregnant so many times). I had arthritis and this knee had blew up and I was walking badly. I asked him, "Richard, put a fresh glass of water on the table for Silvia." He said, "Okay,' but he didn't do it, and I could hear him outside having a good laugh.

When I heard that, I was so angry, I got up and walked into the back room and picked up one of the little pop bottles that was on the shelf. I threw that bottle out back at him and I heard it hit, but I thought it had hit the fence. I turned straight around and went back into the house. I didn't know it, but I had hit him right on the head.

He came in and blood was just streamin' down. I was like to have died. I was like to have had a fit. I said to Silvia, "Go get Daddy. Go get Daddy to come." He came and he said, "Honey, I've told you. You must try not to hurt these kids!" I hated to think I had done it. Richard was so bad at times that I felt like it. but I never meant to do nothing like that.

Little Richard : One time my brother Peyton said to me, "Oh, Richard, where'd you get this body? Boy, you got a curious body," and I said to Mother, "Why is it that one of my legs is shorter than the other?" She answered, "Shut up, boy. You go and get the dishes washed and don't worry about it." But I wanted to hear someone talk about it. I wanted some explanation. I had this great big head and little body, and I had one big eye and one little eye.

But God gave me a strong mind, and a strong will. I've always had a fierce determination to excel. If we were cleaning the yard I would try to make my part better. It was like I had to, 'cos I was in competition with my brothers, and they were all good-Iooking.

I was the one at home that everybody thought was a nut. I would do some silly things. Like when Mother was cooking and I would slip a piece of chicken in my pants pocket and burn my thigh. Or, she'd send me out to do the washing, and I'd just throw the clothes in the water and wring them out. I had everybody dirty for a week! Momma didn't trust my washing or my cooking. She'd say, "Bro (all my family called me that. They didn't say Brother, they'd say Bro), you're a nasty cook."

I used to give people rocks and things as presents, but I once did something worse than that. I had a bowel movement in a box, in a shoebox or something like that, and I packed it up like a present and gave it to an old lady next to Mathis Groceries, on Monroe Street, in Pleasant Hill. I went to her on her birthday and I said, "Miz Ola, how you bin?" And she said, "Oh, Richard, I feel so fine. Richard, you're such a nice child." I said, "Miz Ola, I've just come to wish you a happy birthday, and I've brought you a present. Look." She said, "Ohhh, thank you so much." So she took this big old shoebox with the stuff in it. I went off and waited around the corner of the house to isten for her reactions. I was hoping she would open it while the other ladies were there, and she did. She wanted to show them what I had brought her. She said, "Let us see what Richard has brought for me." Then I just heard somebody say, "Aaaaaaa! Aaaaaahhh! - I'm gonna kill him! I'll kill him!" She was crippled, but she leaped off that porch and she was waling without her stick. I laughed like a cuckoo. God bless Miz Ola, she's dead now."