The tell all story of Loretta Williams Handy, her days on the road with the late great Otis Redding and how she found a new life in Christ. "I lived on the devil's side and did pretty good," says Loretta. "Now I'm on God's side and I'm doing even better." Woman Who Lived Twice Her Story of "The Late Great" "Otis Redding" By Loretta Williams Handy Trafford Publishing Copyright © 2007 Loretta Williams Handy All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4251-1407-7 Contents Introduction.......................................................................11 Early Childhood (Seaport Town, Mobile, Ala.).....................................42 Growing Up In California.........................................................183 The Return To Alabama, The Adolescent Years......................................224 My First Love, The Courtship.....................................................265 The Tragic Wreck The Aftermath...................................................296 Spritual Awakening At An Early Age...............................................317 The First Marriage...............................................................358 The Temptation And Infidelity....................................................389 The Separation And Return To California, The Rape................................4710 A Walk On The Wildside..........................................................5311 The Return To Mobile And The Reconciliation.....................................5612 The Retaliation And Payback.....................................................5813 The Singing Career/life With New Lovers.........................................7214 On The Road With The Otis Redding Show And Band New Affair......................8115 The Performances of Otis........................................................10316 Back Home Again In Mobile Ala...................................................12917 The Tragedy.....................................................................13918 Recovery & Healing..............................................................14919 Return To Mobile, The Divorce, New Marriage, Finding Christ.....................166Loretta Williams: Discography......................................................189 Chapter One EARLY CHILDHOOD (SEAPORT TOWN, MOBILE, ALA.) Here I am, I've made it, finally I've made it, I'm standing here in awe, looking out over the vast audience, wondering in my mind, can this really be me, I hear the sounds of the band, the funky, grounding, grueling sounds of the great Otis Redding band, winding up, waiting for me to make my grand entrance on stage, the great Appollo Theatre at my disposal, I look out over the audience cheering, clapping, calling to me, "it's Loretta from Mobile, Alabama", it's my time, the time I had dreamed about, the time I had longed for, the time I had really prayed for, to become a famous singer, never knowing I'd be here, the star vocalist of the "Otis Redding 28 piece orchestra on stage" New York City bright lights, big city, it's really me, as I walked onto that great big stage which looked like a hundred miles wide to me, and the big spot light flashed swiftly toward me, I felt I had really arrived, as the audience applauded loudly, and the stage announcer announced my grand arrival, I stood there, gazing, with my mind going back to the first day of my life, when life came to me in that cold dingy, little hospital room in a small seaport town, in Alabama, a place called the Mobile, General Hospital, where a little black woman travailing in pain and agony, with fear and trembling, in a room all alone trying to birth her first baby girl. And then, there I was, screaming, hollering, kicking, didn't need no slap on the fanny to start crying or breathing, my lungs were already working properly, very loud and clear, ready for the world and the singing, that would become my career. Born January 31, 1941 in a small, busy, flourishing seaport town known as Mobile, Alabama on a cold windy winter nite, in a lonely isolated delivery room, a small baby girl and her mother struggled alone desperately to enter into this soon to be found as a strange world. This young mother in agony and pain holding the screaming, raging baby girl between her legs, (by the way) who needed no one to pat her on the fanny to get her to cry or to breathe the breath of life into her lungs but already had it in her, she came out with good lungs and raising hell her mother says: began screaming "nurse", Doctor, somebody please come help me, my baby has already come, help, somebody! And finally she was heard, and was then asked, why did you try to have this baby by yourself? My mom says she just looked at them and asked where were you? So as you can see my life started out rough. I could have died at birth, if my mom hadn't held me with her legs, the concrete floor could have been my fate! Even though I could have died at birth it seems there was a h