Nov. 14, 2015
It was only today, apparently, that Thomas Moore saw this picture taken of him in 1968. It appeared in the Firestone News in May 1968, and is archived on this site here.
The picture accompanied a story announcing that Thomas had won a $1,000 college scholarship from the Gastonia Music Education Foundation. Earlier, Thomas’ older brother had won the same scholarship. Their father Tracy worked at Firestone.
“This scholarship made a big difference in my life.” Thomas writes.
“My parents had six children with one in college, four playing musical instruments other than piano and a 3-year-old who wanted to do everything her brothers did. We were five boys and one girl.
“With winning this competition, I also found that my musical abilities were comparable to those of my white counterparts. We expected my older brother to win because his piano abilities were far superior than anyone in the state.
“One of the judges at my competition was Alice Berman, musical director of the Singing Christmas Tree. A few years later, I auditioned for the group. Of course, I was accepted. I had a major connection – the director!”
