Standing in the Rainbow (27 page)

They had been together for only a few months when a producer from Hallelujah Records heard them sing in Atlanta. After they cut their first album, things started to happen. When
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven
climbed to the top of the gospel charts, offers started coming in from everywhere.
The Singing News
soon wrote that they were becoming the hottest new group of the year.

Soon their second album,
Once I Was Lost but Praise the Lord Now I’m Found,
named after a song Minnie had written inspired by Chester’s disappearance, shot to the top of the charts as well. This combined with their appearance on the Arthur Godfrey show and they suddenly became the number one gospel group in the country. To Beatrice’s delight, this sudden popularity meant traveling to almost every state in the Union and within six months they had even sung in the White House. By the end of 1949 they were booked fifty-two weeks out of the year and had their own big silver bus with
THE OATMAN FAMILY GOSPEL SINGERS
written in big, bold, black letters on both sides.

Although this meant she did not see the family very often, Betty Raye was very happy for their success and equally happy that she was not involved in any of it. As far as she was concerned, her life was perfect. Quiet and peaceful. She did not have to be onstage performing every night and have to pack up and drive somewhere else for the next one. She got to sleep in the same bed in the same town week after glorious week. She had a nice little job she liked, all the books she could read, and went bowling once a week. For the first time in her life she was able to do the same old thing day after day and she loved it. At last she was beginning to feel as if she really belonged somewhere. She wanted it to go on forever. But one day Hamm Sparks walked in the door.

Hamm Sparks was an ordinary young man in most respects—smoke a little, dance a little, drink a little, flirt a little. Ordinary except for the one thing. Ambition. When the Ink Spots sang “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” the lyrics failed to apply to him. Not that other young men were without ambition but Hamm Sparks burned with it. If he had been a car it would have been racing on all sixteen cylinders and running hot. So hot you got the feeling he could explode at any minute.

But unlike some men, who were sick and driven with ambition, he’d never felt better in his life. Hamm thrived on it like it was mother’s milk. Some would say later that he even glowed in the dark with it. And he had a plan, a goal in life, and at the moment it involved going to college on the G.I. Bill, waiting on tables in the dorm six hours a day, and selling Allis-Chalmers tractors on the weekends and during summers to help support his mother and two younger sisters. Work was something he was not afraid of or resented. He had been working since he was ten years old. Work for him was just a means to an end. In America, no matter how poor you started out or where you came from, you could go as high as you wanted if you were willing to work for it. Hamm thought this was about as good a deal as you could get. It gave him hope for a bright and shining future and he was on his way. He did not know exactly where yet—he would figure that out later; all he knew was that he was in a hurry. He had to make up for lost time. He ate fast, talked fast, walked fast, and hardly ever slept. He shook hands, patted backs, and never missed an opportunity to introduce himself to everyone he ran across. What brought him to Elmwood Springs that one particular day was Bess Goodnight. In 1942 he had passed through town on a train headed to Fort Leonard Wood and, like a lot of the other soldiers, had thrown his name out the window, hoping to get someone to write to him. Bess Goodnight wrote to him throughout the war. Like so many of Bess’s wartime pen pals, Hamm came to visit her whenever he was near enough to make it over to Elmwood Springs. He got a big kick out of Bess and loved to take her out to the cafeteria for lunch. Hamm loved the idea of good food in a hurry but this Saturday, while going through the line, he slowed a bit when he noticed the pretty girl in the glasses standing behind the steam table waiting for him to tell her what vegetables he wanted. Usually he passed right by the vegetables, on to the desserts, but today he stopped. This girl stood with a spoon in one hand and a small brown plastic bowl in the other, waiting for his order. He looked down at the steam table at the choices.

“Ah . . . let’s see, I’ll have some potatoes and how about some macaroni and cheese?”

He pointed to something green in one of the containers. “Are those turnip greens?”

“No, sir, collard greens.”

“All right, good. Give me some of those then.”

He would have ordered more but the line behind him was backing up and he had to move on. Even before they got to the table and had emptied their trays Hamm asked Bess about the girl with the glasses dishing out the vegetables.

Bess glanced over and said, “Oh, that’s Betty Raye, Dorothy’s little boarder. Ever hear of the Oatman family?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I hear them on the radio.”

“Well, that’s their daughter; she used to sing with them but she quit.”

Hamm glanced back over at Betty Raye, even more impressed.

“Well, I’ll be. She’s not married yet?”

“No.”

“Is she going with somebody?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Do you reckon she’d go out with me?”

Bess laughed. “You sure don’t waste any time, do you, boy?”

During the next four weekends Hamm never drove so far or ate so many vegetables in his life. Going to the cafeteria was the only way he could get to see her. Every Saturday when he came down the line Betty Raye was horrified and embarrassed at all the attention and commotion he would cause. She asked him to please stop holding up the line but each time he said, “I will, just as soon as you say yes.” One Saturday, after he had been down the line for the fourth time, he pleaded with her. “Come on now, Betty Raye, you’ve just got to go out with me. If I eat one more bowl of those collards I’m liable to turn green. You don’t want that on your conscience, do you?” At that moment Mr. Albetta came out of the double doors of the kitchen and glared at him and Hamm moved on, while the girls giggled. But he would not give up. Late that afternoon, when Betty Raye came home, there he was sitting on the front porch, chatting away with Mother Smith and Bess Goodnight. Mother Smith was clearly charmed and smiled and said, “Betty Raye, this nice young man tells me he is a friend of yours.” Hamm grinned from ear to ear. “I brought Bess with me to vouch for my upstanding character.”

Bess laughed. “I don’t know how upstanding he is but I wish you’d go out with him for my sake, because he’s about to pester me to death over it.”

Well, what could she do? Hamm was a force hard to resist.

The First Date

M
ONDAY WAS
Betty Raye’s day off and Hamm was to pick her up in the early afternoon and take her to Poplar Bluff for dinner. She was nervous about going all that way with him but she did not have much say in the matter. Dorothy and Mother Smith were so excited she was going on a date that they called Tot and set up an appointment for her that morning to get her hair shampooed and set. It was the last thing she wanted but she went. They picked out her outfit and at the last minute Dorothy ran in with a string of pearls for her to wear. And so at four o’clock, Betty Raye in a pair of Anna Lee’s high heels and with a head full of fluffed-up frizz and Hamm wearing a borrowed suit, off they went.

Betty Raye had never been on a real date. The whole idea of it made her feel very uncomfortable. She had no idea how she was supposed to act and the entire time they were driving over to Poplar Bluff she wished this date would hurry up and be over so she could go back home. They made quite a pair. She did not know it but he had not been on many dates himself. He had been too busy working and had not had the money to take many girls out. He’d had to sell a few of his books just to get the money to pay for tonight.

All through dinner she did not talk much. Luckily she did not have to; he talked enough for both of them. This was the first time Hamm had seen her in anything but a white uniform and cap and he was impressed. She wasn’t exactly pretty in a conventional way but there was something so sweet and shy about her that as the night wore on, the prettier she became.

On the drive back Betty Raye was even more nervous than before. She hardly heard a word he said. She worried all the way home that he might try to kiss her or something but he did not. He did not have much of a chance. When they reached the front door she shook his hand and said, “Well, good night,” and was in the house with the door closed and back in her room before he could do anything. Dorothy and Mother Smith were in the kitchen when she came in, the two of them dying to know all the details, but they would have to wait till the morning.

“Well,” said Dorothy as she entered the kitchen, dressed for work. “Did you have a nice time last night?”

Betty Raye said, “Yes. It was fine.”

But that was all she volunteered. Mother Smith picked up the ball. “So do you think you’ll be seeing him again?”

Betty Raye looked surprised at the question. “No, I don’t think so.” As far as she was concerned, she had gone out with him once. Why would she want to do it again? Dates were too hard. She just wanted to serve vegetables and be left alone. After she left Dorothy said, “Too bad. I was hoping things would have worked out.”

“Me too.” Mother Smith sighed. “But when there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there and you can’t do a thing about it.”

However, no two people interpret the same event the same way. The following Saturday morning Hamm walked into the drugstore and nodded at Bertha Ann and Thelma, said, “Hello, girls,” went straight back to the pharmacy, stuck his hand over the counter, and shook Doc’s hand. “Sir, my name is Hamm Sparks and I just wanted to ask you if it would be all right with you if I married Betty Raye.”

Doc, who had heard about this character but had never met him, was a little thrown. “I don’t know. I suppose it depends on her. What does she say?”

“I haven’t asked her yet but I can assure you that you won’t have to worry. I have a fairly good job now and as soon as I finish college I intend to do even better in the future. I’m thinking about going into public service and people tell me I have a pretty good shot at it.”

“I see,” said Doc.

Hamm said, “Yessir, and I sure would appreciate if you would put in a good word for me,” and handed him his card. “ ’Bye, ladies,” he said on the way out.

“Who was that little banty rooster?” Bertha Ann asked.

Doc laughed. “Betty Raye’s boyfriend. Or so he thinks.”

Thelma was surprised. “Your Betty Raye?”

“That’s what he says.”

Bertha Ann said, “Well, whoever he is, he sure is a cute little thing. Doc, you tell Betty Raye for me she better watch out or I’m liable to steal him.”

Thelma, still amazed that Betty Raye even had a boyfriend, said, “Well, I guess it’s true what they say.”

“What?” asked Bertha Ann.

“Still waters run deep.”

“I could have told you that,” Bertha Ann said. “It’s those quiet ones you have to watch out for.”

Doc did not mention the young man’s visit to Dorothy, Betty Raye, or Mother Smith. Where women were concerned, when the subject was romance he had learned that it was best to stay out of it and let them deal with it on their own, so he wisely kept his mouth shut and let nature take its course.

The Boyfriend

A
S IT TURNED OUT
, Doc was glad he had not said anything. After the first date Betty Raye heard no more from Hamm.

After a month went by Betty Raye had more or less forgotten about Hamm Sparks but that thought had never occurred to him. It had not taken him long to make up his mind. He had known after that first date that he wanted to marry her, so why wait? He was almost twenty-seven, in a hurry to get married and get started on his career, so the next day he got busy making plans for both of them. The first thing he had to do was get the money. The next day he talked the district manager of Allis-Chalmers into letting him sell in three more areas. It took him almost a month, working nights and all weekend, but he finally earned enough money to make a down payment, plus a little left over. The next Friday Hamm put on his brand-new blue suit from Sears and drove over to Elmwood Springs with the box in his pocket. He had not bothered to inform Betty Raye he was coming because he wanted to surprise her.

He walked up the steps to the house and knocked. Dorothy came to see who was there.

“Hello, Mrs. Smith, is Betty Raye here?”

“Well, hello, Hamm.” Dorothy opened the door. “Yes, she is. Come on in. We are just sitting down for supper; why don’t you come in and join us.”

“Thank you, I think I will, if it’s all right.”

“Of course it is, all I have to do is set a plate. You just go on in the dining room and sit down.” She called down the hall as she went to the kitchen, “Betty Raye, everybody, Hamm is here.”

When Doc looked up and saw the new blue suit coming in the door, he thought to himself, Uh-oh, here comes trouble. Hamm walked into the dining room and said, “Hi, everybody,” pulled out a chair, and sat down across from Betty Raye. Everybody said hello but Jimmy just nodded. He was not sure about this guy. A little too pushy for his taste. Hamm soon sat there eating and talking all about tractors, farmers, Allis-Chalmers, and anything else that came to mind, including a joke he had just heard. Bobby thought he was funny and liked him right away but Betty Raye was confused. She did not know whether she was glad to see him again or not. She liked him O.K., she guessed, but he made her so nervous the way he talked so fast and moved so fast that she didn’t know what to think. She was embarrassed that he had just shown up like that but it had not seemed to bother anyone else. Mother Smith and Doc and Dorothy chatted away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.