Posted on Sat, Sep. 27, 2008 10:15 PM
Excerpt from Milton Katz’s Breaking Through, a Rockhill Nelson Award winner
This is the second of three excerpts from the winners of this year’s William Rockhill Nelson Awards, sponsored by the Writers Place and The Kansas City Star to recognize excellence by Missouri and Kansas writers. Milton S. Katz won the nonfiction prize for Breaking Through. He and the two other winners will receive their awards at 2 p.m. Oct. 5, at Raglan Road, 170 E. 14th St. in the Power & Light District. For information on attending, e-mail jeberhart@kcstar.com.
On the morning of September 2, 1999, an impeccably dressed, diminutive, slender, eighty-four-year-old African American man sat on the stage poised to speak to the freshman class at the B.N. Duke Auditorium at North Carolina Central University in Durham. Although he was pleased to be here, he could not help thinking about how his wife, Joanna, back in Cleveland, had tried to keep him from going, for she feared her husband’s health would be further jeopardized by the trip. John B. McLendon understood that Joanna’s fears were real, for two and a half months earlier he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A month afterward, as the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic was preparing to operate, John and his wife found out that the cancer had spread so extensively throughout his body that an operation was inadvisable. The “Little Coach,” who had spent his lifetime breaking through so many social barriers, could not break free of this physical one. He was dying, but a sense of purpose and a profound faith in the Almighty gave him the strength to carry on.
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