Like many in show business through the years, Ketty Lester — TV and film actress, singer, songwriter and recording artist — started life with a much less glamorous, less melodious name. She was born Revoyda Frierson on Aug. 16, 1934, in the southwest Arkansas town of Hope.
The name Revoyda, she says, was "a curse for me. ... That is a hard name. When you say 'Revoyda,' people are going to say — the next word is going to be 'What?' Then you've got to spell it and pronounce it all over again."
When she went to San Francisco as a young adult, she vowed to change her name after the first person she told her name said "What?"
When a young man did, indeed, ask her her name and respond with "What?" when she told him, "I said listen, honey, just call me Ketty, K-e-t-t-y, and forget it." Her show-business surname, Lester, came along later. And Revoyda-turned-Ketty went on to a Grammy nomination for her chart-topping single "Love Letters," as well as for appearances that ranged from Juanita Jones, the cab-driver turned-vampire in the 1972 cult-classic film "Blacula" to Hester-Sue Terhune, the teacher at the blind school in the '70s-'80s TV series "Little House on the Prairie."
Lester is one of six inductees to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, which makes a return to its in-person induction ceremony and variety show after a two-year, covid-related hiatus. The induction of the newest class takes place Saturday at Robinson Center Performance Hall.
Other inductees:
- ◼️ Sherman Banks of Little Rock, international citizen diplomat, honorary consul general to Ghana and arts education patron.
- ◼️ Dr. Joe L. Hargrove, Grady native, cardiologist, educator and philanthropist.
- ◼️ Hattie Hill, Moro native, international business consultant, entrepreneur and philanthropic leader.
- ◼️ James Thrower, Camden native, NFL star and business, philanthropic and civic leader.
- ◼️ The late Gertrude Newsome Jackson, Gum Bottom native, educator and social justice/civil rights leader.
[RELATED: Inductee CEO Hattie Hill leads foundation]
"Our 2022 class of inductees continues the tradition of showcasing the tremendous talent that Arkansas produces," says Charles Stewart, Black Hall of Fame chairman. "The covid-19 pandemic paused our plans in 2020 and again in 2021, so we look forward to an amazing ceremony for our inductees, their family and friends and others as we celebrate the return to the Robinson and 30 years of recognizing some of our state's best."
With the proceeds, the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame Foundation will continue to issue grants for improving education, health and wellness, and youth development, as well as strengthening families, in Black and other underserved communities throughout Arkansas. This year, with the support of corporate partners, the foundation awarded $50,000 in 16 mission-related grants.
Since 2010 these grants, totaling up to $5,000 each, have affected Arkansans in 69 counties.
A VETERAN ENTERTAINER
Lester, now 88 and a Los Angeles resident, discusses her storied career in her 2020 book, "Ketty Lester: From Arkansas to Grammy Nominated 'Love Letters' to Little House on the Prairie" (Elite Publishing House, $19.69). Which did she enjoy most, singing or acting?
"Being an actress," she says during a phone interview. "I have always sung all my life, in the church and in the school. When I was in high school, I was known as 'the singer'; every program that was on, I was on there. If I wasn't on there, they didn't have one."
Lester was the youngest of 15 children born to a farm family. She lived about eight blocks from where former President Bill Clinton was born, she says.
"I picked cotton; I picked cucumbers. We raised everything that we ate," she says. "We had a joyful time. To me, that was the joy of my life."
She and one of her sisters, whom she always looked out for, graduated at the same time as she; Lester got a scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock, but was concerned about this sister's welfare. She decided they should follow in the footsteps of two of their brothers who'd joined the Army. But another brother came to fetch the two girls and moved them to San Francisco, where they enrolled in San Francisco City College. There, Lester studied nursing. Meanwhile, she began to sing at a club called The Purple Onion, working with Arkansas' noted poet, Maya Angelou, and comedian Phyllis Diller. The three worked together for a year; then club officials decided to open another location in Hollywood. They wanted Lester to be the opening headline act at the new club.
"So I opened that Purple Onion and I stayed there for about two years. Of course, Maya was still in San Francisco, but she did come to Los Angeles to be with me. And that was when she started writing her poems," Lester remembers.
Lester then went to open at another club, Ye Little Club, which was her home base while she had other singing gigs. (She sang at such venues as the Village Vanguard in New York and toured internationally as a singer with the Cab Calloway orchestra.)
It was at Ye Little Club Lester says, that she met Rosemary Clooney, who warned her that if she ever started recording, she needed to avoid a company called RCA Victor.
"Then I met a hillbilly singer named Dorothy Shay, the Park Avenue Hillbilly." Shay sang the hit song "Feudin' And Fightin'."
"She took me on as her prodigy," Lester recalls. "And she took me first to New York. Would you believe the first company she took me to, to audition for, was RCA Victor. Oh Lord." RCA officials told her that she didn't have a recording voice. Lester, who remembered Clooney's warning, didn't mind.
When she returned to Hollywood, Lester says, comedian Groucho Marx "was the first man that put me on television."
"It was kind of funny. Me and Groucho Marx, we were good friends." He had started coming to the Purple Onion "and for some reason he just loved me," Lester says. That's when he invited her to appear on his show.
The show: "You Bet Your Life." The year: 1957. She was a contestant. According to Lester's bio, "[Marx] commented on her striking beauty and asked her to sing a song with the show's musicians. She performed 'You Do Something to Me' that ended with a standing ovation. Marx predicted then that she would soon become a top singing sensation."
DAYS OF HER LIFE
But then came the role on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives." Dorothy Shay had a friend that was associated with the soap opera ... executive producer Betty Corday. She asked Corday if she'd ever thought about having a Black family on the show.
No, she hadn't thought about it, but the idea was born. The Black family was developed, and Lester stepped into the brief role of Helen Grant, a wife and mom of two teenagers.
It was also at Ye Little Club, Lester says, that she met hit songwriter Ed Cobb, who asked if she wanted to do some demos. She thought he wanted her to do some demos of his songs. "But that's not what he had in mind. He takes me to his co-worker who ... had a studio above his garage. And they told me to come there and do some demos for them. All right, I go there. And I said, 'Well, what do you want me to do?' And [Cobb] said, 'Well, just do what you do in the nightclub.'
The first song she sang: Billie Holiday's song, "I'm a Fool to Want You."
She was asked to sing more songs ... until she ran out of songs to sing. "I told them 'I've got to go because I've got to work tonight, and I don't know no more songs.' ... They said, 'Just one more.'
As it happened, the piano player had the music to "Love Letters" available, Lester says. "I said, 'Play that. And I'll sing that for you.'
"Well, he played it, but he played it so straight. I said 'Can't you put a little soul into that song?' And he said, 'What is that?' He didn't know what soul was. I said, 'Well it's similar to gospel, don't you know?' He didn't know what gospel was." She had a Black drummer there who demonstrated rhythm for the piano player. "I said 'Earl ... you get the drum and you get this rhythm going, and we're gonna make a gospel player out of this classical musician.' And that's what we did."
Her first single had been 1962's "Queen for a Day" on the Everest label. Era Records released her "I'm a Fool to Want You," which was a jazz hit for Lester; the B side, "Love Letters," rose to number five on the charts in 1962, the same year she toured with the Everly Brothers. In 1963, she was nominated for a Grammy as Best Female Pop Vocalist.
"So all of a sudden now, RCA Victor wants me," Lester says. Her record company "sold me without even asking ... to RCA Victor. It's like slavery, you know."
Lester continued to record throughout the 1960s and 1970s with several labels, releasing such songs as her 1966 single "When a Woman Loves a Man," a response to the Percy Sledge hit "When a Man Loves a Woman." Her discography: "Love Letters," "The Soul of Me," "Where Is Love?," "When a Woman Loves a Man" and "Ketty Lester in Concert." (She released a Christian music album in 1984.)
She told RCA she didn't like to sing with big bands, and asked that she be allowed to sing her way. "But the first album they come out with, it was torch songs like I sing; it was love songs like I sing. But they had an 18-piece band. ... They made me start belting [out songs], and I did a lot of beautiful songs that they had there. But I had to belt.
"I only did two albums for RCA Victor. ... And they sold my album to ... London Records. It was number one. I'm still known in London, and they are still selling my records in London."
CHARACTER ACTOR KETTY
Lester had earned her acting chops in college, where she was associated with a theatrical group at the neighboring University of California, Berkeley. In 1964, she appeared off-Broadway in "Cabin in the Sky," winning a Theatre World Award for her role. Once she ended her relationship with the record company, she returned to Los Angeles once again and embraced acting, co-starring in such feature films as "Up Tight" and "Prisoner of Second Avenue."
She also appeared in a number of network TV's most popular '60s-'70s shows ... "That Girl," "Julia," Sanford and Son," "Love, American Style," "Marcus Welby M.D.," "Streets of San Francisco," "The Waltons," "Lou Grant," "Happy Days," "Hill Street Blues," "St. Elsewhere," "In the Heat of the Night" and "L.A. Law." Her television movies include "Louis Armstrong: Chicago Style" and "It's Good to Be Alive."
Her favorite actor to work with? "Bill Cosby," she answers readily. "I loved working with Bill Cosby." She also enjoyed working with the late comedian Bernie Mac, who had planned to do a series and wanted her to play his mother. She was ready to do it, but that's when he became ill.
"And I lost him. It was like losing a friend when I lost him. I just loved him."
Lester had also been close to the late Michael Landon, with whom she appeared in "Little House on the Prairie."
Her meeting with Landon came about when she played the mother of the late baseball player Roy Campanella on a TV bio-pic, "The Roy Campanella Story." When she went to the studio, she met Landon.
She praised him as "a heck of a director and writer" who kept her on the show until she retired and would let her do her scenes the way she chose to do them. "It was just a blessing."
STILL A FAN FAVORITE
Lester still has a lot of "Little House" fans. For her 88th birthday she received more than 200 gifts and birthday cards from all over the world.
"I'm grateful to all of my fans, wherever they may be," Lester says. "I'm just grateful for all of the people that remember me and remember that I do exist and I'm still alive and well."
When she was told of her induction into the Hall of Fame, she was shocked.
"Basically my people in Arkansas didn't know me because of the name change and stuff like that," she explains. "And they really didn't know who I was. And I don't know how they found out about Ketty Lester. But I think it was my manager here that wrote them and told them 'Why don't you have Ketty Lester in your Hall of Fame?' ... But it's a pleasure to to go back there."
Arkansas Black Hall of Fame
28th annual induction ceremony and show, Saturday
5 p.m. VIP reception, ballroom, DoubleTree Hotel Little Rock; 7 p.m. ceremony and show, Robinson Center Performance Hall
Tickets: $25-$100; VIP packages available
Information: arblackhalloffame.org