Mahalia was given the opportunity to return to New Orleans and visit her family. When attending a tent show back home in Greenville, she met the acquaintance of an eight-year-old boy named John Sellers. She was very impressed with his talents and they two remained friends. John would often stop by randomly to visit Mahalia and he turned toward Mahalia as a role model. Living with his Aunt Carrie, John got kicked out of the house over a disagreement and moved in with Mahalia was said that her home was his home. An opportunity knocked on Mahalia?s door when he was offered a job working for a family in a small South Side apartment. (5)This family, the MacIvers, employed John and gave him his own apartment and five dollars a week. Still staying in touch with Mahalia, John attended church with her one Sunday afternoon and joined her in singing. John Sellers quickly became known as ?Brother John? in the church circle and his relationship with Mahalia began to slip away. (3) In Mahalias first performing days in Chicago, many of the ministers rejected her. They claimed that Mahalia had a tendency to shake and twist about which were movements, which were inappropriate for the pulpit. She agreed to their conditions to wear suitable clothing/robes and concealed her vaulting feelings. (1) Right after V-J Day, Louis Terkel, a well-known Chicago raconteur, started a radio program he called ?The Wax Museum? on the station WENR. Terkel was the fi...
