The Feathers

There were a lot of Statons; 12 children in all. Strangely, mom and pop and 9 of their offspring were all born in March. Maybe that?s why they sang. Maybe it was because dad had been a bandleader. At any rate, in the 40s, 5 of the siblings sang as the Staton Family in El Centro, California?s Sweet Home Baptist Church. Let?s list them now, they?ll return later in our story: Johnny (lead tenor), Louis (tenor), Lenora (tenor), James (baritone) and Isaiah (bass). Another Staton that everyone (including me) thought was a sibling is noted jazz singer Dakota Staton; however, she was from Pittsburgh. Candi Staton, who Johnny claimed was his daughter, was born in 1943, making that claim impossible.

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In the summer of 1950, after Johnny had graduated from High School, he and brother Louis ventured down to Los Angeles to sing. They stayed with another sister and hit every talent show they could find. Sometimes they won, sometimes they didn?t, but ?Johnny and Louis Staton? at least won enough so that they didn?t go hungry. At the end of the summer, Louis returned home to finish school, and Johnny enlisted in the Air Force.

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Shipped off to West Palm Beach, Florida, Johnny started as a cook. One day, in 1953, he saw a notice pinned to a bulletin board: they were looking for talent for the Tops In Blue competition (an Air Force singing contest). Johnny entered and won his level by singing a solo version of ?Crying In The Chapel?.

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Then he got the inevitable group together: Dozie McKinley (tenor), Jimmy Marshall (baritone), Charles McCain (baritone), and Bill Rolands (bass). Calling themselves the ?Flyboys?, they also began to practice ?Crying In The Chapel?, which they used to win the second level of the competition.

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They sounded so good that they were all assigned to Johnny: he could gather them together for practice any time after 2 pm each day. The practice paid off, with the Flyboys winning the third level (the State competition at Tampa). At this point they had a Sergeant Coluda assigned to them. He taught them breath control, singing techniques, and stage presence. Then it was on to the semi-finals in Mississippi. The sergeant warned them ahead of time that they?d be the only black act on the bill. He told Johnny, ?you get yourself a woman in the audience and look into her eyes and sing to her?. Johnny found a woman in the first few rows and didn?t take his eyes off her while he sang. Finally, she began screaming and cheering, which set the whole place off; the Flyboys won.

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While the group did some appearances at some Air Force bases, they never made it to the finals; Johnny?s enlistment was up and he wasn?t about to re-up just to win a contest. There was another airman, by the name of Melvin Broxton, who wanted to take over the group from Johnny, but they just didn?t accept him. (Too bad, since when he got out, Melvin Broxton became ?Johnny Flamingo?.)

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Once out of the service (in the fall of 1954), Johnny took $3000 that he had saved and came to Los Angeles with siblings Louis, Isaiah, James, and Lenora. They rented a 2-bedroom apartment and went looking for singing jobs. They didn?t find much work and one by one the sibs went home until only Johnny and Louis were left. They continued doing talent shows. Along the way, Johnny and Louis picked up another pair of brothers: tenor John ?Sonny? Harris and his baritone brother Don. To round out the group, bass Mitchell Alexander was added. Choosing a variant of a ?bird group? name, they called themselves the ?Feathers?.

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