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Keith Anderson walked down the aisle Saturday, despite the loss of his father six days earlier.
By CHRISTINA JEWETT
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 10, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Keith Anderson buried his father on Friday. He married his fiancee on Saturday.
He never anticipated two days like these.
"I'm split when it comes to my emotions," said Anderson, who is 23. "I just keep thinking to myself that the wedding is going to take my family and myself through this situation."
His father, William Franklin Anderson, a barber known as "Mr. Frank," suffered a heart attack while washing his car last Sunday, June 3. It was six days before his son's wedding.
He was 56 years old, the father of Priscilla Franchelle Williams, 33; William Franklin Anderson Jr., 28; and Keith Montrell Anderson, 23.
Jackqulyne, Mr. Anderson's wife of 34 years, was getting ready for the bridal shower when she was called to the hospital. Jackqulyne, Keith and Tiffany Phillips -- his bride-to-be -- rushed there, but when it was clear the family could do nothing, Mrs. Anderson asked Tiffany to go back to the shower. Family had come in from several states for the event.
"The mood was different after that," Phillips said. "It was quiet, and kind of rushed. Not your typical happy type shower."
In Pinellas County last year, there were 6,980 marriages. There were 12,347 deaths.
For 37 years, Frank Anderson owned and operated Franklin's Barber Shop, 1423 18th Ave. S. He prided himself on knowing nearly all of his customers' names.
"He kept his prices low so single mothers could afford to take their sons to get their hair cut," his wife said. "He lived modestly to help so many people."
Mr. Anderson grew up in Quincy working in the mornings before dawn till sunset in tobacco fields. His father left when he was a baby, so he acted as the head of his family, supporting his mother and five sisters. It was the request of his half brother in 1960 that brought Frank, 16, to St. Petersburg where he met Jackie, 14, and attended school to become a barber.
"When I met Frank he was everything a young woman would look for. He was in church, no drinking, no smoking," she said. "He loved his mother."
They married in 1966, just months after Jackie graduated from high school. His wedding gift to her was a set of white luggage, filled with clothes for her to wear on their honeymoon in Miami Beach.
As she leafed through faded wedding pictures last week, telephone calls and guests filtered through the house. "The Lord will bring me through," she assured each caller. "Thanks for the fish, that was Frank's favorite," she told a guest.
"I told Tiffany, we want this to be a joyous occasion," she said quietly, eyes downcast. Her volume and line of vision rose slowly as she continued. "With the funeral it's easy to be sad. But think of two people in love with each other. God brought them together, so we are to have good thoughts."
Frank Anderson reserved a barber's chair in his office for his oldest son, Franklin Jr., hoping to pass on his profession. Trained as a barber, Franklin plans to carry on the family business after taking the state certification test.
To his other son, Keith, Mr. Anderson passed on his passion for music.
"I remember the first time I got a little rhythm," Keith said. "He got out some pots and pans for me to play on. I used to whale on those pots and pans."
Keith remembers his father coming home from the barber shop, plugging in his guitar and playing for hours and hours. One of the only days Franklin ever closed his barber shop -- besides a half-day to get a broken tooth repaired -- was to watch Keith play a bass drum for the Florida A&M University Marching 100 during a parade. Franklin looked past his distaste for football when his son marched with the band. Then football games became a ritual.
Mr. Anderson never missed a chance to talk about his vibrant health or that he had gained nary a pound since he married. The secret, he would tell people, was not eating sweets.
He never missed his daily short stack of pancakes and two scrambled eggs at Kissin' Cuzzins. He always took his sons fishing on Wednesdays and brought the catch home for a family fish fry.
When it came to music, the father spurred on the son. Keith Anderson, who plays the drums with the spiritual group Vessels of Praise, plans to complete a compact disc of music in his father's memory.
"Listening to him was my biggest inspiration when it comes to music," Keith said. "Music keeps me calm. Now that it's so hard to sleep I've been listening to music every night this week."
As Keith and Tiffany sat in the front row of the funeral service on Friday, it was music that brought nearly all of the 280 people in attendance to their feet, singing and clapping their hands. His sister, Priscilla, spoke of her father's cheer, and she sang a solo: "I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free."
After the wedding at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3300 31st St. S, Keith planned a duet with his wife at the reception: Tiffany singing the words to Spend My Life with You with Keith playing a drum solo at the end.
Keith and Tiffany met working at Facsgroup, a company that provides credit card authorization to department stores, and dated for two years before they went their separate ways. She went back home to Bradenton, and Keith stayed in St. Petersburg. For about a year, they didn't talk.
"I think it was a stubbornness thing on both of our parts," Tiffany said.
Keith didn't give in to his pride -- it was his curiosity that made him pick up the phone. "I found a number in the bottom of my book bag and called it and asked, "What number is this?' "
The person on the line was Tiffany.
"I was surprised. I was shaking," Tiffany said. "I was happy, very happy. I knew he was the one from the very beginning. He was very mannerable, very respectful."
The week leading up to the wedding was strenuous for Tiffany. Not only did Keith's father pass away, but on June 1 her grandfather died.
"Being that we had so many relatives coming from so many states, we wanted to go on with the wedding so there would be a happy ending to an otherwise tragic week," Tiffany said. "Keith knew his father would want him to go on, and he sees it as a dedication type ceremony."
Keith insisted that his mother forego cooking a dinner for the wedding rehearsal set to begin at 7 p.m. After all, many of the guests would still be full from the chicken, ham and macaroni and cheese served at the church after the funeral.
Jackie and Frank Anderson had been separated the last two years, "a time of testing and trials," Mrs. Anderson said.
She last spoke to him on June 2, a Saturday night. She informed him of the consequences if he was late to the wedding, and they made a plan: Franklin would close his shop early -- at 4 p.m. -- for the 5 p.m wedding. He was going to bring his suit to work and change in the shop. She told him that he looked good and expressed regret over Frank's choice to leave.
"I believe God is using this to bring us together. It's an opportunity to bring (Frank) home."
On the day before the funeral, the living room in the house that Frank and Jackie Anderson bought when they were newlyweds was canvassed with sympathy cards depicting sunsets of regret and birds of sorrow. Jackie and Keith took a minute to picture Frank at the wedding reception.
They both laughed.
"He'd be telling everyone how healthy he is," Jackie smiled.
"If he was there I could see him bouncing his knees, looking around and trying to remember everyone's names," Keith said.
Before the funeral service on Friday at Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, 2230 22nd St. S, Tiffany and Keith walked side by side to the casket, each laying a red rose across Mr. Anderson's chest. Twenty-five hours before he would be a groom, Keith sat and watched his father's casket being lowered into the ground. Tiffany stood behind him.
A moment of silence and a few words of tribute opened the wedding reception.
"We made the decision to go forth with the wedding," Jackie Anderson said. "For the last two months I saw so much joy in Keith. I believe in my heart that he really loves this young lady. They have so many plans."