Rev.Johnny L. §T Jones: e Hurricane That Hit Atlanta auf 2 CDs

Johnny Lee Jones was born on June 25, 1936 in Marion, Alabama. Growing up, Johnny said he and his brothers were "country boys" - farming, planting cotton, picking cotton, pulling corn, plowing mules, raising cows, chickens, and hogs, but they also had the spiritual life. Johnny's mother was a very active member of the church, and his father was a deacon. Every Sunday the family would sing and praise at Macedonia Baptist Church in Howell Crossroad, Alabama. Drawn to music at a young age, Johnny said his family did not own a piano, but one day he offered his mother a proposal, "if we make 21 bales of cotton next year, will you promise me that you will give me one bale?" That next year, Johnny's family made 24 bales of cotton, and his mother granted him a bale to buy a piano. Johnny taught himself how to play the instrument, and before long he was appointed the church's choir director. In Atlanta, Johnny went from church to church and from place to place, preaching and playing the piano. He hit his stride in LaGrange, a town a little more than an hour's drive southwest of Atlanta. Johnny claims he had "a lightning spark" while pastoring several churches in the rural town. Then, the biggest event in the history of Johnny's ministry came when Second Mount Olive Baptist Church, located on 154 Maple Street in Atlanta, called him to preach. Johnny still remembers the call very well. He and his wife Dorothy "didn't have but one child then - Johnny Lee Junior - and we stayed there and worked and watched the church grow, and just enjoyed our lives."It was at Second Mount Olive Baptist where Johnny would receive the nickname "The Hurricane." At that time, Esmond Patterson was one of the most popular radio disc jockeys in Atlanta, and when it came to nicknaming a person, Johnny said Esmond "had a good vision." Patterson said that a hurricane starts off slowly, slowly, slowly, and as long as it is in process, the faster, the faster, the faster she gets, and when she gets a certain speed, that's when she's dangerous....