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Viv Nicholson and Oracene Price (mother of Serena and Venus Williams) celebrities who are Jehovah's Witnesses
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Viv Nicholson obituary
Britain’s best-known football pools winner who vowed to ’spend, spend, spend’
Viv Nicholson and her husband Keith holding a cheque from Littlewoods for £152,319
Viv Nicholson and her husband Keith after receiving a cheque for their winnings – presented by Bruce Forsyth – in 1961. Photograph: PA
Martin Wainwright
Tuesday 14 April 2015 10.41 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 14 April 2015 19.08 EDT
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Viv Nicholson, who has died aged 79, having suffered from dementia after a stroke in 2011, was Britain’s best-known winner of a windfall and has probably secured that title for all time. Not just because she greeted a hefty football pools jackpot in 1961 with her gleefully notorious promise to “spend, spend, spend”, but thanks to the success she later enjoyed in turning her rollercoaster life into a cash earner.
Although money left her as wildly impulsive as did the lakes of alcohol she consumed before she became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1979, she was clever, persevering and deservedly proud to see her children enjoy a much better start and far more encouragement in life than she had had.
She was 25 and packing Pontefract liquorice cakes in 1961 when her second husband, Keith Nicholson, landed £152,319 – worth several million at today’s values – with eight score draws on Littlewoods pools. The money was not a record – long-forgotten Nellie McGrail from Stockport had won £205,235 four years earlier – but the couple’s reaction became legendary.
Perfect media game, from a poverty-stricken mining background in Castleford, near Wakefield, they had borrowed their stake, almost lost the winning coupon and only made it to the cheque presentation with Viv in her sister’s stockings and shoes. Blonde and gutsy, she teetered on these towards the officiating celeb, Bruce Forsyth, and fainted into his arms.
She and Keith were egged on relentlessly to stick to her spending promise, headlines surrounding every excess. Their bling new home was called Ponderosa after the ranch in a TV series; its swimming pool was often empty and used by the children to store their bikes. Viv bought a pink Cadillac like the one driven by one of her heroines, Jayne Mansfield, and dyed her hair to match. There were binges in the local Miners’ Arms. But the money lived up to its reputation of failing to buy happiness. Old friends and family were jealous and alienated, investment was too small and poorly advised and the story seemed to end in the pattern familiar in media sensations and morality tales. Keith died in 1965 in a car accident, after losing control of his Jaguar. The estate duties were punitive and Viv was left penniless.
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That could have been it, in the same way that a different door had slammed on Viv, then Vivian Asprey, at the age of 13 and in her final year at school. She had won an art scholarship to stay on, but her parents, her father a heavy-drinking miner and her mother an asthmatic coping with seven children, could not afford to meet the balance. Instead of following, however modestly, in the footsteps of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth from the previous generation in Castleford and Wakefield, Viv foraged for coal on the mine dump, did shifts in local shops and was on £7 a week at the liquorice plant when the big win came.
But her brightness at school and tenacity thereafter came to the rescue with the need to earn a living after Keith’s death. The notoriety demanded by her image was met by a brief stint in a Manchester strip club, singing “Hey, big spender”, but she got her cards for refusing to take off her underwear. Less newsily, she worked with lawyers to gain access to the residue after tax of the £42,000 left in Keith’s will. A trust fund protected her children’s private schooling.
Viv embarked on three further marriages and a brief move to Malta, which ended in her being deported for punching a policeman. At times it all became too much, and she attempted suicide and spent time in psychiatric care.
Turning points came when she was converted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and especially when she wrote her life story, with Stephen Smith, inevitably called Spend, Spend, Spend (1978). It was dramatised successfully for the BBC by the writer Jack Rosenthal and the director John Goldschmidt, who won a Bafta. In 1984 Viv posed for the cover of the Smiths’ single Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. In 1998, a musical, Spend, Spend, Spend, was a triumph at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, transferring to the West End of London for a two-year run, with a revival at the Watermill in Berkshire in 2009.
Viv earned approaching £200,000 from these accounts of her life, and although she slipped back to an extent into her free-spending ways, her sons settled her in a two-up, two-down terrace house in Castleford, where, while never less than ebullient, she was reunited with old friends and enjoyed taking round the Watchtower and similar Witness tracts. Generosity rather than excess threatened to be her undoing, with a modest investment in a clothes shop failing because she gave away items. Her propensity to hand out tenners prompted one of her sons to buy a large pink pottery piggy bank for her £87 weekly widow’s pension, engraved with her famous slogan.
She is survived by her children, Steven, Tim, Sue and Howard.
• Vivian Nicholson, pools winner, born 3 April 1936; died 11 April 2015
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'Spend, spend, spend' football pools winner, Viv Nicholson, dies aged 79
12 Apr 2015
'Spend, spend, spend' football pools winner, Viv Nicholson, dies aged 79
This charming woman: why Morrissey and the Smiths loved Viv Nicholson
13 Apr 2015 202
This charming woman: why Morrissey and the Smiths loved Viv Nicholson
So long Viv Nicholson, the original working-class antihero
Selina Todd
13 Apr 2015 89
So long Viv Nicholson, the original working-class antihero
comments (13)
This discussion is closed for comments.
Order by oldest
Threads collapsed
TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 11:40
6
7
The greatest influence on British Socialism's fiscal policy of the 20th century
RIP dear viv xx
Report
100Objects TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 15:59
11
12
What a mean response.
Report
arfurarf TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 17:46
14
15
Hang your head in shame, you unfeeling knob.
Report
TrueAndHonest arfurarf 15 Apr 2015 4:00
1
2
Viv would have laughed she wasn't no miserable lefty she hated high taxation and the taxman
Report
cestlhomme 14 Apr 2015 14:37
2
3
Cas will miss her. RIP Viv.
Report
Leedsfanabroad 14 Apr 2015 14:46
1
2
Some of my (step) family used to live in her house in Garforth.
Report
Goodelouise 14 Apr 2015 15:18
6
7
A life lived to the Grand High Maximum. Rest in Peace Viv.
Report
ghostinthemachine 14 Apr 2015 17:32
4
5
Someone who lived, never afraid to suffer the slings and arrows. RIP.
Report
Brasilunlimited 14 Apr 2015 20:51
7
8
The Pools Dad filling out the form and Mum entrusted with the job of posting it on time. Then the enforced 'silence' during the reading of the Football results on the radio around 6:00pm on Saturday. Life was in the balance as each of the scores was registered on the Pools form, and death was threatened to the next person in the room who moved Dad's concentration from the BBC newsreader!
How many households across the land shared this or similar situations each week? Part of the post war culture on the benighted winners of the war so recently fought. I never knew if 'we' ever won anything, it was for the adults to celebrate and us to keep quiet during the time taken to end with Stirling Athletic 2 - Dundee 3
Report
darkstarr 14 Apr 2015 21:27
1
2
Forfar 5 - Fyfe 6.
Report
Oldscarborian 15 Apr 2015 0:36
2
3
A turning point came when she was converted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Hmm. Turning points can be positive or negative, I suppose.
Report
John Gratton 15 Apr 2015 3:43
1
2
Yes i remember the big win being 77yoa, a lot of envy was seen but good luck to them just sorry what happened to their lives. But the fact is that most of us would have done something similar at that time. R. I. P.
Report
Flooch 15 Apr 2015 5:49
1
2
If Ms Nicholson had been born 20 years later, she would have been a natural for reality TV.
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Viv Nicholson obituary
Britain’s best-known football pools winner who vowed to ’spend, spend, spend’
Viv Nicholson and her husband Keith holding a cheque from Littlewoods for £152,319
Viv Nicholson and her husband Keith after receiving a cheque for their winnings – presented by Bruce Forsyth – in 1961. Photograph: PA
Martin Wainwright
Tuesday 14 April 2015 10.41 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 14 April 2015 19.08 EDT
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Comments
13
Viv Nicholson, who has died aged 79, having suffered from dementia after a stroke in 2011, was Britain’s best-known winner of a windfall and has probably secured that title for all time. Not just because she greeted a hefty football pools jackpot in 1961 with her gleefully notorious promise to “spend, spend, spend”, but thanks to the success she later enjoyed in turning her rollercoaster life into a cash earner.
Although money left her as wildly impulsive as did the lakes of alcohol she consumed before she became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1979, she was clever, persevering and deservedly proud to see her children enjoy a much better start and far more encouragement in life than she had had.
She was 25 and packing Pontefract liquorice cakes in 1961 when her second husband, Keith Nicholson, landed £152,319 – worth several million at today’s values – with eight score draws on Littlewoods pools. The money was not a record – long-forgotten Nellie McGrail from Stockport had won £205,235 four years earlier – but the couple’s reaction became legendary.
Perfect media game, from a poverty-stricken mining background in Castleford, near Wakefield, they had borrowed their stake, almost lost the winning coupon and only made it to the cheque presentation with Viv in her sister’s stockings and shoes. Blonde and gutsy, she teetered on these towards the officiating celeb, Bruce Forsyth, and fainted into his arms.
She and Keith were egged on relentlessly to stick to her spending promise, headlines surrounding every excess. Their bling new home was called Ponderosa after the ranch in a TV series; its swimming pool was often empty and used by the children to store their bikes. Viv bought a pink Cadillac like the one driven by one of her heroines, Jayne Mansfield, and dyed her hair to match. There were binges in the local Miners’ Arms. But the money lived up to its reputation of failing to buy happiness. Old friends and family were jealous and alienated, investment was too small and poorly advised and the story seemed to end in the pattern familiar in media sensations and morality tales. Keith died in 1965 in a car accident, after losing control of his Jaguar. The estate duties were punitive and Viv was left penniless.
Advertisement
That could have been it, in the same way that a different door had slammed on Viv, then Vivian Asprey, at the age of 13 and in her final year at school. She had won an art scholarship to stay on, but her parents, her father a heavy-drinking miner and her mother an asthmatic coping with seven children, could not afford to meet the balance. Instead of following, however modestly, in the footsteps of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth from the previous generation in Castleford and Wakefield, Viv foraged for coal on the mine dump, did shifts in local shops and was on £7 a week at the liquorice plant when the big win came.
But her brightness at school and tenacity thereafter came to the rescue with the need to earn a living after Keith’s death. The notoriety demanded by her image was met by a brief stint in a Manchester strip club, singing “Hey, big spender”, but she got her cards for refusing to take off her underwear. Less newsily, she worked with lawyers to gain access to the residue after tax of the £42,000 left in Keith’s will. A trust fund protected her children’s private schooling.
Viv embarked on three further marriages and a brief move to Malta, which ended in her being deported for punching a policeman. At times it all became too much, and she attempted suicide and spent time in psychiatric care.
Turning points came when she was converted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and especially when she wrote her life story, with Stephen Smith, inevitably called Spend, Spend, Spend (1978). It was dramatised successfully for the BBC by the writer Jack Rosenthal and the director John Goldschmidt, who won a Bafta. In 1984 Viv posed for the cover of the Smiths’ single Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. In 1998, a musical, Spend, Spend, Spend, was a triumph at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, transferring to the West End of London for a two-year run, with a revival at the Watermill in Berkshire in 2009.
Viv earned approaching £200,000 from these accounts of her life, and although she slipped back to an extent into her free-spending ways, her sons settled her in a two-up, two-down terrace house in Castleford, where, while never less than ebullient, she was reunited with old friends and enjoyed taking round the Watchtower and similar Witness tracts. Generosity rather than excess threatened to be her undoing, with a modest investment in a clothes shop failing because she gave away items. Her propensity to hand out tenners prompted one of her sons to buy a large pink pottery piggy bank for her £87 weekly widow’s pension, engraved with her famous slogan.
She is survived by her children, Steven, Tim, Sue and Howard.
• Vivian Nicholson, pools winner, born 3 April 1936; died 11 April 2015
More obituaries
Topics
Gambling
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'Black Bike Week' riders cry foul over security increase at annual gathering
How to turn a liberal hipster into a capitalist tyrant in one evening
Middlesborough v Norwich: Championship play-off final – live!
Bomb squad destroys pressure cooker found in vehicle parked near US Capitol
US military eases uniform rules to allow turbans and beards
'Spend, spend, spend' football pools winner, Viv Nicholson, dies aged 79
12 Apr 2015
'Spend, spend, spend' football pools winner, Viv Nicholson, dies aged 79
This charming woman: why Morrissey and the Smiths loved Viv Nicholson
13 Apr 2015 202
This charming woman: why Morrissey and the Smiths loved Viv Nicholson
So long Viv Nicholson, the original working-class antihero
Selina Todd
13 Apr 2015 89
So long Viv Nicholson, the original working-class antihero
comments (13)
This discussion is closed for comments.
Order by oldest
Threads collapsed
TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 11:40
6
7
The greatest influence on British Socialism's fiscal policy of the 20th century
RIP dear viv xx
Report
100Objects TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 15:59
11
12
What a mean response.
Report
arfurarf TrueAndHonest 14 Apr 2015 17:46
14
15
Hang your head in shame, you unfeeling knob.
Report
TrueAndHonest arfurarf 15 Apr 2015 4:00
1
2
Viv would have laughed she wasn't no miserable lefty she hated high taxation and the taxman
Report
cestlhomme 14 Apr 2015 14:37
2
3
Cas will miss her. RIP Viv.
Report
Leedsfanabroad 14 Apr 2015 14:46
1
2
Some of my (step) family used to live in her house in Garforth.
Report
Goodelouise 14 Apr 2015 15:18
6
7
A life lived to the Grand High Maximum. Rest in Peace Viv.
Report
ghostinthemachine 14 Apr 2015 17:32
4
5
Someone who lived, never afraid to suffer the slings and arrows. RIP.
Report
Brasilunlimited 14 Apr 2015 20:51
7
8
The Pools Dad filling out the form and Mum entrusted with the job of posting it on time. Then the enforced 'silence' during the reading of the Football results on the radio around 6:00pm on Saturday. Life was in the balance as each of the scores was registered on the Pools form, and death was threatened to the next person in the room who moved Dad's concentration from the BBC newsreader!
How many households across the land shared this or similar situations each week? Part of the post war culture on the benighted winners of the war so recently fought. I never knew if 'we' ever won anything, it was for the adults to celebrate and us to keep quiet during the time taken to end with Stirling Athletic 2 - Dundee 3
Report
darkstarr 14 Apr 2015 21:27
1
2
Forfar 5 - Fyfe 6.
Report
Oldscarborian 15 Apr 2015 0:36
2
3
A turning point came when she was converted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Hmm. Turning points can be positive or negative, I suppose.
Report
John Gratton 15 Apr 2015 3:43
1
2
Yes i remember the big win being 77yoa, a lot of envy was seen but good luck to them just sorry what happened to their lives. But the fact is that most of us would have done something similar at that time. R. I. P.
Report
Flooch 15 Apr 2015 5:49
1
2
If Ms Nicholson had been born 20 years later, she would have been a natural for reality TV.
Report
Close report comment form
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Bulent Yusuf
The Observer, Saturday 5 July 2003
Name: Viv Nicholson
Date: 27 September 1961
Place: Castleford, West Yorkshire
Facts: Viv Nicholson was a housewife and a factory-worker who became famous when she won the pools. When asked what she was going to do, she said: 'Spend, spend, spend.' And spend she did, losing everything in four years. Her life has since been turned into a West End musical
The week before we won, we desperately needed some money. My husband Keith was working on a night shift, for £7 a week, and I was earning £7 a week in a cake factory. After paying the bills, it was hard to make ends meet. We weren't even eating very well. At least, I wasn't eating very well, because I had to keep my husband and my three children going, so one of us had to suffer.
We found out on Saturday evening that we'd won the pools, but we couldn't find the coupon. We weren't sure if we'd sent it off or not, but then the winning ticket turned up in Keith's trousers. It's unbelievable that I remember the exact amount we won so clearly - it was £152,300, 18 shillings and eight pence. Back then, even the eight pence meant something.
That night we walked into town and had a couple of halves of beer each, and we got the bus back home, but we couldn't sleep. My mum and dad came round with some cans and we had loads to drink and smoke. We did that for a couple of nights, before getting the train to London to collect our winnings from Littlewoods.
There were so many people at King's Cross station, all rushing towards my particular compartment, I thought, 'Oh, I didn't realise there were so many people who wanted to catch a train.' That is how naive I was. They were reporters, and they all asked, 'What are you going to do now?' And there I was, wearing a pair of tights I had to borrow from my sister, and I said I was going to 'Spend, spend, spend!'
Like you do.
We bought a big bungalow and I used to have a new car every six months. I used them to learn to drive. I was awful at reversing and I would always reverse into somebody's plant pot or door.
I also met some famous people: Victor Borges, Joan Collins, Leonard Rossiter, and someone very special to me from the old movies, Mae West.
Keith died in a car accident in 1965. We'd already spent most of the money by then, and it all went to the taxman after that. Who would have thought your husband would be dead at 27? Littlewoods never gave us any help. They sent Keith and me out to the wild blue yonder. People like me would win the pools without having any idea how to handle it. When Camelot started the National Lottery, they called me up and said, 'We have learnt from Littlewoods' mistakes.' They keep in touch with all the previous winners and keep an eye on them, which is how it should be.
I took to singing in nightclubs for a while. And then I was asked to strip at this revue bar in Manchester, and I went because it was £50 a night and I was hard up. I was supposed to go in front of the audience, and start singing 'Big Spender'. And I hate that record. It used to hurt me to sing it. The club managers said to me, 'Drop your dress when you get to the end of the song.' And I said, 'Only if I can leave my bra and knickers on.' They refused, but I wouldn't do it.
I kept my knickers and bra on. Afterwards I was frogmarched into the back and told, 'You'll do it properly tomorrow or you're sacked.' But the next night I dropped my dress to reveal my underwear. I got the sack. In total I earned £50, which didn't even cover the petrol there and back. I couldn't do it; I just wasn't a stripper.
I've long been associated in people's mind with Morrissey. The first time I met him was in Blackpool after he sent me an invitation to go see him. When I walked towards the venue where he was playing, I was quite astounded when I saw all these big effigies of me. I thought, Wow, he only asked for a little photograph for the record cover, and there were all these posters of me all over the place. When I went in, I was asked to go up on stage. There was this young man wearing a hearing aid and thick-rimmed spectacles with a tree hanging out of his backside, and I thought, My goodness, who is that? It was Morrissey. Wow, I thought, here's two weirdos together.
I said, 'Shall we get married?' and he said, 'Yes.' He was so strange, but that was his gimmick.
I actually found him to be a really nice guy.
I've spent 11 years working in a perfume shop in Wakefield and people still recognise me.
You wouldn't believe how many people treat me differently after the things they've read in the papers. They say, 'I know you from so and so', and I say, 'That's not true, that was written many years ago.' I can't even settle down on the bus. Even my granddaughter, Brooke, gets attention.
In 1999, there was a musical based on my life called Spend Spend Spend, starring Barbara Dickson. It was very sad and frustrating to see my life on stage like that. It was very well done. The musical director and the cast were fantastic people, but I don't think they really understood the reality of what I went through.
In my head, I'm 35 years old. When people ask, 'Why do you look so good?' It's because I won't let another year, another week, another month, another hour, take over my life. There are people younger than me who look dreadful. Pluck the eyebrows, I say, get the pounds off, rouge up those cheeks! I've been a Jehovah's Witness since 1979. I trust in the heavenly Father Jehovah and he's always there for me.
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Bulent Yusuf
The Observer, Saturday 5 July 2003
Name: Viv Nicholson
Date: 27 September 1961
Place: Castleford, West Yorkshire
Facts: Viv Nicholson was a housewife and a factory-worker who became famous when she won the pools. When asked what she was going to do, she said: 'Spend, spend, spend.' And spend she did, losing everything in four years. Her life has since been turned into a West End musical
The week before we won, we desperately needed some money. My husband Keith was working on a night shift, for £7 a week, and I was earning £7 a week in a cake factory. After paying the bills, it was hard to make ends meet. We weren't even eating very well. At least, I wasn't eating very well, because I had to keep my husband and my three children going, so one of us had to suffer.
We found out on Saturday evening that we'd won the pools, but we couldn't find the coupon. We weren't sure if we'd sent it off or not, but then the winning ticket turned up in Keith's trousers. It's unbelievable that I remember the exact amount we won so clearly - it was £152,300, 18 shillings and eight pence. Back then, even the eight pence meant something.
That night we walked into town and had a couple of halves of beer each, and we got the bus back home, but we couldn't sleep. My mum and dad came round with some cans and we had loads to drink and smoke. We did that for a couple of nights, before getting the train to London to collect our winnings from Littlewoods.
There were so many people at King's Cross station, all rushing towards my particular compartment, I thought, 'Oh, I didn't realise there were so many people who wanted to catch a train.' That is how naive I was. They were reporters, and they all asked, 'What are you going to do now?' And there I was, wearing a pair of tights I had to borrow from my sister, and I said I was going to 'Spend, spend, spend!'
Like you do.
We bought a big bungalow and I used to have a new car every six months. I used them to learn to drive. I was awful at reversing and I would always reverse into somebody's plant pot or door.
I also met some famous people: Victor Borges, Joan Collins, Leonard Rossiter, and someone very special to me from the old movies, Mae West.
Keith died in a car accident in 1965. We'd already spent most of the money by then, and it all went to the taxman after that. Who would have thought your husband would be dead at 27? Littlewoods never gave us any help. They sent Keith and me out to the wild blue yonder. People like me would win the pools without having any idea how to handle it. When Camelot started the National Lottery, they called me up and said, 'We have learnt from Littlewoods' mistakes.' They keep in touch with all the previous winners and keep an eye on them, which is how it should be.
I took to singing in nightclubs for a while. And then I was asked to strip at this revue bar in Manchester, and I went because it was £50 a night and I was hard up. I was supposed to go in front of the audience, and start singing 'Big Spender'. And I hate that record. It used to hurt me to sing it. The club managers said to me, 'Drop your dress when you get to the end of the song.' And I said, 'Only if I can leave my bra and knickers on.' They refused, but I wouldn't do it.
I kept my knickers and bra on. Afterwards I was frogmarched into the back and told, 'You'll do it properly tomorrow or you're sacked.' But the next night I dropped my dress to reveal my underwear. I got the sack. In total I earned £50, which didn't even cover the petrol there and back. I couldn't do it; I just wasn't a stripper.
I've long been associated in people's mind with Morrissey. The first time I met him was in Blackpool after he sent me an invitation to go see him. When I walked towards the venue where he was playing, I was quite astounded when I saw all these big effigies of me. I thought, Wow, he only asked for a little photograph for the record cover, and there were all these posters of me all over the place. When I went in, I was asked to go up on stage. There was this young man wearing a hearing aid and thick-rimmed spectacles with a tree hanging out of his backside, and I thought, My goodness, who is that? It was Morrissey. Wow, I thought, here's two weirdos together.
I said, 'Shall we get married?' and he said, 'Yes.' He was so strange, but that was his gimmick.
I actually found him to be a really nice guy.
I've spent 11 years working in a perfume shop in Wakefield and people still recognise me.
You wouldn't believe how many people treat me differently after the things they've read in the papers. They say, 'I know you from so and so', and I say, 'That's not true, that was written many years ago.' I can't even settle down on the bus. Even my granddaughter, Brooke, gets attention.
In 1999, there was a musical based on my life called Spend Spend Spend, starring Barbara Dickson. It was very sad and frustrating to see my life on stage like that. It was very well done. The musical director and the cast were fantastic people, but I don't think they really understood the reality of what I went through.
In my head, I'm 35 years old. When people ask, 'Why do you look so good?' It's because I won't let another year, another week, another month, another hour, take over my life. There are people younger than me who look dreadful. Pluck the eyebrows, I say, get the pounds off, rouge up those cheeks! I've been a Jehovah's Witness since 1979. I trust in the heavenly Father Jehovah and he's always there for me.
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The mother behind the Williams' sisters
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Tennis star Serena Williams and her mother
Tennis star Serena Williams and her mother Oracene Price durig their recent visit to Kenya. Oracene says her celebrity daughter is not too old to get a spanking! Photo/MOHAMED AMIN
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By MERCY GAKII
Mother Power comes in different forms. Most people have memories of their mother’s involvement in their lives from very early on – the perennial fights over what to wear, especially during teenage – and the transition into best friends in later years.
Fifty-six-year-old Oracene Price, the mother and one-time coach of two great tennis stars, Venus and Serena Williams, knows all about the need to be an involved parent. Over the last decade, her daughters have changed the face of the game from a mainly white-dominated sport to prove that anyone can succeed with discipline and determination.
Oracene, who had accompanied her daughter Serena to Kenya on a charity tour last week, quietly watched as throngs of admirers jostled to catch a glimpse of the tennis star. She does not invade her daughter’s celebrity status, choosing instead to mingle with the crowd.
“I am no celebrity, only my daughters are,” she says by way of correcting an impression given by one journalist’s question about how much she enjoys the public life.
Two of five
Venus and Serena are two of five daughters. Sadly, one of them, Yetunde, died in 2003 in a shooting incident in Los Angeles. Yetunde owned a beauty salon and was the personal assistant to her two tennis-playing sisters.
The others are Lyndrea, who is a web designer, and Isha, a corporate lawyer who also accompanied her sister and mother on the trip to Kenya.
Before their arrival here, mother and daughters had been in South Africa for another charity function, and Senegal to view prospective sites on which to build schools.
“Serena loves anything education,” comments Oracene, as she watches her daughter excitedly cut the tape to officially open a school named after her in Makueni District. “She hopes to help as many children go to school as she can.”
Asked how much of their money the tennis champions spend on the fast life, Oracene is quick to explain that “the girls” as she fondly refers to her daughters, are not really into that kind of thing, preferring to spend their cash on ‘solid’ projects such as establishing schools.
“They will occasionally go on vacation after a tough tennis season, but that’s it,” she says, adding that she herself has no say whatsoever over what they do with their money.
The journey to stardom was never easy, as the girls started out in a neighborhood ridden with crime, and at one time in their younger years even had to contend with a shoot-out by gangsters while training in the open grounds of Compton, Los Angeles, where they grew up.
“I remember when they started playing tennis. Nobody forced them. They were always in the courts early, even before their father or I would get there.
Those days we trained them together,” says Oracene of the time when she and her ex-husband supported their daughters’ interest in a sport that was mainly associated with white people. The girls even had racist words flung at them occasionally while they were on the courts.
But all that is behind them now, as the Williams girls went on to completely dominate the sport in a way that made the world sit up and take notice. These days, Oracene, who trained in tennis in order to coach her daughters, sits back and watches while her daughters slug it out on the court.
The mother behind the stars says of Serena, who is 27, “She is the youngest, which makes her feel like she is still the baby. She is sometimes cheeky, and can be irritating.
I sometimes have to remind her that she could still get a spanking! Just recently, she said something just to irritate me. I asked her, ‘Do you want me to take that?’ and she shut up immediately.”
Humble and respectful
Oracene notes that despite the girls’ huge success, they have managed to remain humble and respectful. Venus, 29, is more inclined to projects that involve women and children, having been on world tours with the children’s fund, Unicef.
“Venus is more focused and loves to improve on her knowledge,” says Oracene. “She reads a lot, and is always looking for projects to do. She is constantly working to improve – whether it’s her game or career in interior design. She trains more seriously and is more purpose-driven while Serena is sometimes lazy. She wants to stay in bed longer, or go and train later. She knows she is the baby and wants to get away with it.”
Asked about the father of her children, Oracene reacts with an “oops!” She focuses on the distant landscape and is silent for a moment, then calmly reveals her marital status: “I am divorced and for now, I can’t tell you much about Richard, the father of my girls.”
Oracene, a devout follower of the Jehovah’s Witness faith, describes herself as a deeply spiritual woman. She believes her biggest influence on her daughters has been stability, faith and discipline. And when it comes to politics, she is neutral.
“I am neutral when it comes to politics, but I pray for (President-elect, Barack) Obama every day, that God will help him in everything he sets out to do. I hope he will make a difference, although he has to be very careful now that he is in a very high office,” she says.
The former teacher reveals that she home-schooled her children before taking up nursing. And now she is trying out a career in public speaking. “I like to keep on learning something new; that’s why I have kept changing careers – to avoid boredom!” she concludes.
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The mother behind the Williams' sisters
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Tennis star Serena Williams and her mother
Tennis star Serena Williams and her mother Oracene Price durig their recent visit to Kenya. Oracene says her celebrity daughter is not too old to get a spanking! Photo/MOHAMED AMIN
Advertisement
By MERCY GAKII
Mother Power comes in different forms. Most people have memories of their mother’s involvement in their lives from very early on – the perennial fights over what to wear, especially during teenage – and the transition into best friends in later years.
Fifty-six-year-old Oracene Price, the mother and one-time coach of two great tennis stars, Venus and Serena Williams, knows all about the need to be an involved parent. Over the last decade, her daughters have changed the face of the game from a mainly white-dominated sport to prove that anyone can succeed with discipline and determination.
Oracene, who had accompanied her daughter Serena to Kenya on a charity tour last week, quietly watched as throngs of admirers jostled to catch a glimpse of the tennis star. She does not invade her daughter’s celebrity status, choosing instead to mingle with the crowd.
“I am no celebrity, only my daughters are,” she says by way of correcting an impression given by one journalist’s question about how much she enjoys the public life.
Two of five
Venus and Serena are two of five daughters. Sadly, one of them, Yetunde, died in 2003 in a shooting incident in Los Angeles. Yetunde owned a beauty salon and was the personal assistant to her two tennis-playing sisters.
The others are Lyndrea, who is a web designer, and Isha, a corporate lawyer who also accompanied her sister and mother on the trip to Kenya.
Before their arrival here, mother and daughters had been in South Africa for another charity function, and Senegal to view prospective sites on which to build schools.
“Serena loves anything education,” comments Oracene, as she watches her daughter excitedly cut the tape to officially open a school named after her in Makueni District. “She hopes to help as many children go to school as she can.”
Asked how much of their money the tennis champions spend on the fast life, Oracene is quick to explain that “the girls” as she fondly refers to her daughters, are not really into that kind of thing, preferring to spend their cash on ‘solid’ projects such as establishing schools.
“They will occasionally go on vacation after a tough tennis season, but that’s it,” she says, adding that she herself has no say whatsoever over what they do with their money.
The journey to stardom was never easy, as the girls started out in a neighborhood ridden with crime, and at one time in their younger years even had to contend with a shoot-out by gangsters while training in the open grounds of Compton, Los Angeles, where they grew up.
“I remember when they started playing tennis. Nobody forced them. They were always in the courts early, even before their father or I would get there.
Those days we trained them together,” says Oracene of the time when she and her ex-husband supported their daughters’ interest in a sport that was mainly associated with white people. The girls even had racist words flung at them occasionally while they were on the courts.
But all that is behind them now, as the Williams girls went on to completely dominate the sport in a way that made the world sit up and take notice. These days, Oracene, who trained in tennis in order to coach her daughters, sits back and watches while her daughters slug it out on the court.
The mother behind the stars says of Serena, who is 27, “She is the youngest, which makes her feel like she is still the baby. She is sometimes cheeky, and can be irritating.
I sometimes have to remind her that she could still get a spanking! Just recently, she said something just to irritate me. I asked her, ‘Do you want me to take that?’ and she shut up immediately.”
Humble and respectful
Oracene notes that despite the girls’ huge success, they have managed to remain humble and respectful. Venus, 29, is more inclined to projects that involve women and children, having been on world tours with the children’s fund, Unicef.
“Venus is more focused and loves to improve on her knowledge,” says Oracene. “She reads a lot, and is always looking for projects to do. She is constantly working to improve – whether it’s her game or career in interior design. She trains more seriously and is more purpose-driven while Serena is sometimes lazy. She wants to stay in bed longer, or go and train later. She knows she is the baby and wants to get away with it.”
Asked about the father of her children, Oracene reacts with an “oops!” She focuses on the distant landscape and is silent for a moment, then calmly reveals her marital status: “I am divorced and for now, I can’t tell you much about Richard, the father of my girls.”
Oracene, a devout follower of the Jehovah’s Witness faith, describes herself as a deeply spiritual woman. She believes her biggest influence on her daughters has been stability, faith and discipline. And when it comes to politics, she is neutral.
“I am neutral when it comes to politics, but I pray for (President-elect, Barack) Obama every day, that God will help him in everything he sets out to do. I hope he will make a difference, although he has to be very careful now that he is in a very high office,” she says.
The former teacher reveals that she home-schooled her children before taking up nursing. And now she is trying out a career in public speaking. “I like to keep on learning something new; that’s why I have kept changing careers – to avoid boredom!” she concludes.
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