In 1964, Nona, Sarah (RIP) attend Trenton Central High School together. I have followed their careers ever since. The last time I saw Nona was in the Philly train station in 2014. I love it when she mentioned Trenton, New Jersey ❤
Nona is an exceptional songwriter to go along with her beauty and incredible heart! Thank you for all the years of great music that touched from a 70 year old.
you know, I get the feeling sometimes when I read things or feeds on YT, about the group LaBelle, that Patti is not as favored in the group, as some might think. I read things about her thinking she's better than Nona & Sarah..thats the kind of stuff Im talking about. But the fact of the matter is, Nona and Sarah have ALWAYS been closer by virtue of Sarah asking Nona to be in the group BEFORE she asked Patti. And there was another lady who Sarah pulled in, BEFORE she went looking for Patti. And that young lady was the lead vocalist, before she quit. On the other side of things, Patti LaBelle was the one that reached out to Cindy Birdsong who she knew from Philly...and the two groups led by Sarah and Patti, merged into the Bluebelles, from the Ordettes and another group that Sarah & Nona were in,. and thats the REAL story behind the the story, because Patti LaBelle wrote/spoke about the genesis of the group, from the VERY early days of the group's inception. I tell people, who think they have the 411 on any of the women in the group, to read Patti's memoir, "Dont Block the Blessings/Revelations of a Lifetime". That book is how I came to know that Nona was lesbian...its how I came to know that Jackie Wilson tried to rape Patti LaBelle, backstage at the Apollo Theater, when she was 17 or 18...its how I came to know that Nona had a nervous breakdown, backstage at LaBelle's last concert..she walked off stage in the middle of a song ..and went backstage where she proceeded to start bashing her head into a wall, and had to be rushed to a hospital. And that book is how I came to know that Patti and Al Green (yea, that one) had an argument so bad, while they were touring with the play "Your Arm's Too Short to Box With God", that Al Green backed Patti up against a wall because he didnt like how her time on stage was running over his allotted time, and he came at her with the finger in her face-thing and raising his voice. Patti broke the neck of a champagne bottle, and with the broken bottle in her hand, she then backed him up against a wall with the glass to his throat, just before her husband and her bandleader Budd Ellison burst into the room to pull her away from Al. Her book is the best thing that Ive read, coming from a celebrity. She just pours out EVERYTHING in it.
Wow.. what a novel you wrote ( we heard about for 40 years now🙄).. Patti is leader of the group meaning = extended talent, if Patti had attended they would have needed a bigger seating capacity 🤭