SINGING AT HIS HOME at 200 Sycamore St. — soon to be Turner Drive — Earl Turner Sr. demonstrates his melodious voice Thursday morning.

“You need to do something good for someone everyday,” Earl Turner Sr.’s great-grandmother, Molly Turner, used to tell him.

Turner has lived that admonition by giving freely of his talents, both mechanical and musical.

At the Fayette city council meeting Tuesday (see story elsewhere this page), a token of appreciation was returned to Earl Sr. The council voted to change the western-most block of Sycamore Street to Turner Drive in his honor. Turner lives on that block.

“Many times we honor people after they have passed on and they don’t have the opportunity to enjoy the gift of recognition,” Earl Turner Jr. wrote in a letter requesting the street name change. The letter to Fayette Mayor Joe Bex. Earl Jr. pointed out that his father did not know of his son’s communication.

A lifelong resident of Fayette, Earl Sr. began his own family at the age of 17 when Earl Jr. was born. Four siblings were to follow. Earl Sr. supported his family by working 39 years for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.

He began in the maintenance department of Southwestern Bell, but then applied for a lineman’s position. His son, Earl Jr., wrote: “Of course few people working there believed a black man would be able to pass the aptitude test, much less the physical test, for the [lineman’s] job. My father proved all of them wrong and went on to become the first black man to work in this position at SWB in the state of Missouri.”

Earl Sr. has climbed too many poles to count, but one pole will stay in his mind. In 1970, he was strapped to a 40-foot pole which broke and fell over. Earl Sr. suffered a compound fracture to his left leg. Doctors implanted a metal rod to hold the bone in place. They told him he would be able to walk, but never to climb poles again. Earl Sr. proved them wrong. Only a year after the accident, he was back to climbing poles until his retirement in 1998.

Earl Jr. said he remembers people calling his father at his home, day and night, “to ask for my father’s help since he is known as quite the handyman.” Earl Sr. would always respond with assistance. He called it “God’s work,” helping others without asking anything in return.

Side-by-side with his paying vocation was his ministry of music. Earl Sr.’s voice is like velvet: rich, soft and soothing.

Earl Sr. has comforted countless grieving families by singing “Precious Lord,” “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art” and other familiar hymns at funerals. “You don’t do it for the money,” Earl Sr. said. “You go buy your own gasoline and go do what you got to do.”

Earl Jr. wrote about his father’s generosity when it came to his music, “He never asks to be compensated or paid. I once asked him why he didn’t request at least a small token of some sort. He told me he does it to help the loved ones left behind to heal.”

Mike Jackman, pastor of Mount Zion United Methodist Church in California, Mo., commented that Earl Sr.’s “music bellows from his heart and is a comfort to others.” Earl Sr. sings at Jackman’s church twice a month. Jackman said, “I love it when he sings. My message may not be that good, but I know [the congregation] will get good music.”

Earl Sr.’s musical talent was passed on to all five children, but one made a profession of it. Earl Jr. is a singer, songwriter, musician, dancer and recording artist. He has his own show—the Earl Turner Show—in Las Vegas. Earl Sr. joined his son for a special Father’s Day show held near Las Vegas in 2003.

EARL TURNER SR. sings with his son, Earl Jr., at a Father’s Day show held near Las Vegas in 2003.

But whether there were few or many, Earl Sr.’s singing did not change. Jackman described Earl Sr.’s consistency: “It didn’t matter if there was one person or 100 people...Earl, would sing from his heart. He sang to and for the Lord.”

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