SINGER DENIECE WILLIAMS (left) and Dolly Harris renew friendships at Mayor Eddie Melton’s Inaugural Gala held on January 13, 2024, at the Hard Rock Casino in Gary, Indiana.
After 50 years, Dolly Harris and Deniece Williams renew friendships
“It’s amazing how you never know what you’re going to do in life and how peoples’ lives touch,” said Dolly Harris after Gary Mayor Eddie Melton’s Inaugural Gala at the Hard Rock Casino Saturday night, January 13, 2024.
Harris was seated at the table with Deniece Williams, Gary’s own and 4-time Grammy Awards winner.
Harris said she was sitting next to Deniece. “I know you don’t remember who I am,” Harris said. Williams replied, “You’re Ernest Battle’s cousin.”
Harris grew up in Brooklyn, NY and graduated from Bedford Stuyvesant High School. Their worlds came together at Purdue University in West Lafayette, where Deniece’s husband was a student, Harris said.
That was 1972 and Harris has followed the career of ‘Niecy’ (that’s what Gary folks call her) since. “I was completely and pleasantly surprised I was seated at her table. A friend of mine put me there and didn’t tell me,” Harris said, “and 50 years later, we’re sitting at the same table.”
“Even before I went to Purdue, my best friend’s brother who was a musician, was getting married in Washington, D.C. We went to the wedding. His best friend was Stevie Wonder and we got to meet him,” Harris said.
We were asked what we were going to do after high school, Harris said. “I said I was going to Purdue. They said that’s where one of our singers, Deniece Williams is living. I didn’t know anything about her.” After meeting at Purdue, Harris said she would ride with Williams to Gary to visit her uncle’s family.
Williams performed some of her hit songs for the nearly 600 guests attending Melton’s gala that night, joining the thousand or more already there at the casino as the deep freeze settled into northwest Indiana.
Melton’s remarks that evening channeled experiences similar to those of Harris that put him in place for today’s stage. He was referring to the people he has met along the way.
Mayor Melton said, “A lot of the structures we’re trying to put in place; I have to thank the organizations that I’ve been a part of throughout my professional career. Coming out of college, the Legacy Foundation, Edgewater, NIPSCO … all of these entities helped shape me and shape the thoughts I have on how to create the organization to best serve the citizens of Gary.”
