Birthday Presence
Celebrating my creative and treasured friend who transitioned to ancestor years ago.
“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”–Paul Williams
My dear friend, Bill Lawrie, still corrects me with remembered words whenever I face a disappointing outcome. “Everything happens for a reason, directed by your higher power. There are no coincidences,” I hear him reminding.
Mr. Lawrie was 86 years old, and more than a decade older than my dad, when we first met. Our deep friendship developed almost immediately after our first meeting, following my husband’s funeral.
The actor, writer, chef and friend of Langston Hughes, described returning from California to his Missouri birthplace “so as to not confuse the stork.”
“He dropped me off here and I want to make it easy for him to pick me up,” Mr. Lawrie said.
Lived Experience
After our family’s Great Migration move from the Gulf Coast during the 1950s, no one shared the history of Mr. Lawrie’s family who had moved away decades before our arrival. Their established education and prosperity was ignored.
Years later, I came to understand how unspoken rules regarding white supremacy had purposely kept us from learning about Mr. Lawrie’s family. His father had been a very successful physician, with a family home/office less than a block from our new Great Migration Missouri home.
Moving Forward
Yesterday I prepared a space to honor Mr. Lawrie’s upcoming ancestor birthday by digitizing more of his journals and files. Still pointing the way, Bill introduced me to Lawrence Winters, a historical figure.
Lawrence Winters (1915 - 1965)
“Born Lawrence Lafayette Whisonant in South Carolina, he performed as Lawrence Winters through much of his career. A bass-baritone, he attended Howard University where he studied with Todd Duncan, graduating in 1944. He sang with the Eva Jessye Choir, appearing on Broadway, and sang lead in a concert performance of Clarence Cameron White’s Ouanga in South Bend, Indiana. From that point he enjoyed an active international career. He was one of the group of performers (with Robert McFerrin, Jr., Camilla Williams, Carol Brice and Mattawilda Dobbs) who became the first to sing with white opera companies in the United States…”-Denyce Graves Foundation Archives. Click photo for media overview, but don’t forget to return.
Bill’s Journals
Writing on his 45th birthday, Bill describes his delight at being serenaded by the “opera star” after a chance meeting in a cafeteria. Link by touching the Lawrence Winters photo above to learn more about the 1950s Black opera singer with duel German citizenship.
“Happy Birthday sung by the opera star on my 45th birthday—meeting him in Horn & Hardart Cafeteria. I was with Mary L…introduced there, he had a starring role in opera Aida at City Center.”
I wrote about Bill’s gentle spirit and inspiring words after I hosted his 90th birthday garden party in 2000. “Death is merely a transition away from the physical,” he reminded us.
“Ancestors remain with us in every other way.”
Bill taught me that age doesn’t matter when it comes to truly like-minded spirits and that friends can help place complicated matters in perspective. My close friendship with a person born in 1910 put history in a whole new perspective for this current elder.
“Don’t put a period where God places a comma.” –William Lawry
Happy Birthday, Mr. Lawrie. Thank you for keeping the music playing.
This Week’s Great Migration Library Q & A:
This week’s Question: (2-part) HBCU is an acronym for which institutions? Lawrence Winters graduated from which HBCU?
Answer to last week’s Question: In what decade did Memorial Day become a Federal holiday? Answer: 1970s (1971).
Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open. Your chair is waiting.
“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce
TECH SUPPORT FOR FELLOW BOOMERS: Please help others find us by selecting relevant icons at the top of this email. Click the heart to “like”; click the next symbol to make short comments; click the up arrow to share this with a specific email address; click last symbol to share with contacts. Feel my gratitude. D
Reader Reminders:
More interesting facts will be revealed by clicking on mustard-colored links.
As I did in person, I use Mr. Lawrie, Bill and William Lawrie interchangeably in this written memory.
Great Migration Library website
The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.
Great Migration Library Bookmarks
African Americans: A Portrait by Richard A. Long, Foreword by Maya Angelou (Gramercy, 1993).
The Fifties: The Way We Really Were by Douglas T. Miller; Marion Nowak (Doubleday, 1977).
Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964 by Langston Hughes; Carl Van Vechten (Knopf, 2001).
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes (several editions) by William Bridges, Ph.D. (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2004).
“In this chapter, we will look at these transitions in the context of a lifetime and the development that takes place at every stage of that journey. Only against that background does transition really make sense, for transition is simply the way in which one’s life moves on and unfolds.”–William Bridges
What the Dead Have Taught Me About Living Well by Rebecca Rosen (Rodale Books, 2017).
Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.
Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.
Join the Book Search
Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, media archives, elders and more — including psychic readers).
© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.