NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tom T. Hall, the singer-songwriter who composed “Harper Valley P.T.A.” and sang about life’s simple joys as country music’s consummate blue collar bard, has died. He was 85.

His son, Dean Hall, confirmed the musician’s death on Friday at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. Known as “The Storyteller” for his unadorned yet incisive lyrics, Hall composed hundreds of songs.

Along with such contemporaries as Kris Kristofferson, John Hartford and Mickey Newbury, Hall helped usher in a literary era of country music in the early ’70s, with songs that were political, like “Watergate Blues” and “The Monkey That Became President,” deeply personal like “The Year Clayton Delaney Died,” and philosophical like “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine.”

“In all my writing, I’ve never made judgments,” he said in 1986. “I think that’s my secret. I’m a witness. I just watch everything and don’t decide if it’s good or bad.”

Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell performed Hall’s song “Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)” when Hall was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

In this Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012 file photo, Tom T. Hall accepts the Icon Award at the 60th Annual BMI Country Awards in Nashville, Tennessee.Wade Payne/Invision/AP

“The simplest words that told the most complicated stories. Felt like Tom T. just caught the songs as they floated by, but I know he carved them out of rock,” Isbell tweeted on Friday.

Hall, the fourth son of an ordained minister, was born near Olive Hill, Kentucky, in a log cabin built by his grandfather. He started playing guitar at age 4 and wrote his first song by the time he was 9.

Hall began playing in a bluegrass band, but when that didn’t work out he started working as a disc jockey in Morehead, Kentucky. He joined the U.S. Army in 1957 for four years including an assignment in Germany. He turned to writing when he got back stateside and was discovered by Nashville publisher Jimmy Key.

Hall settled in Nashville in 1964 and first established himself as a songwriter making $50 a week. He wrote songs for Jimmy C. Newman, Dave Dudley and Johnny Wright, but he had so many songs that he began recording them himself. The middle initial “T” was added when he got his recording contract to make the name catchier.

His breakthrough was writing “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” a 1968 international hit about small-town hypocrisy recorded by Jeannie C. Riley. The song about a mother telling a group of busybodies to mind their own business was witty and feisty and became a No. 1 country and pop hit. It sold millions of copies and Riley won a Grammy for best female country vocal performance and an award for single of the year from the Country Music Association. The story was so popular it even spawned a movie of the same name and a television series.

In this July 16, 1977 file photo, Singer Tom T. Hall leans to the edge of the stage at the Jamboree in the Hills to meet the people near St. Clairsville, Ohio. AP

“Suddenly, it was the talk of the country,” Hall told The Associated Press in 1986. “It became a catch phrase. You’d flip the radio dial and hear it four or five times in 10 minutes. It was the most awesome time of my life; I caused all this stir.”

His own career took off after that song and he had a string of hits with “Ballad of Forty Dollars” (which also was recorded by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings); his first career No. 1 hit “A Week in a Country Jail,” and “Homecoming,” in the late 1960s.

Throughout the ’70s, Hall became one of Nashville’s biggest singer-songwriters, with multiple hit songs including, “I Love,” “Country Is,” “I Care,” “I Like Beer,” and “Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet.)” He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978.

“Tom T. Hall’s masterworks vary in plot, tone and tempo, but they are bound by his ceaseless and unyielding empathy for the triumphs and losses of others,” said Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement. “He wrote without judgment or anger, offering a rhyming journalism of the heart that sets his compositions apart from any other writer.

He also penned songs for children on his records “Songs of Fox Hollow (for Children of All Ages)” in 1974 and “Country Songs for Kids,” in 1988. He also became an author, writing a book about songwriting, “The Songwriter’s Handbook,” and an autobiography, “The Storyteller’s Nashville,” as well as fiction novels.

He was host of the syndicated TV show “Pop Goes the Country” from 1980 to 1983 and even dabbled in politics. Hall was close to former President Jimmy Carter and Carter’s brother, Billy, when Carter was in the White House. Tennessee Democrats urged Hall to run for governor in 1982, but he declined.

For his 1985 album “Songs in a Seashell,” he spent six months walking up and down Southern beaches to get inspiration for the summer mood of the LP.

He was inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and in 2012, he was honored as the BMI Icon of the year, with artists such as the Avett Brothers, bluegrass stars Daily & Vincent, Toby Keith and Justin Townes Earle paying tribute to the songwriting legend.

“I think a song is just a song,” Hall said at the ceremony in 2012. “They can do it with all kinds of different bands. It’s just a lyric and a melody. I was talking to Kris Kristofferson one time. They asked him what was country, and he said, ‘If it sounds country, it’s country.’ So that’s my philosophy.”

He married English-born songwriter Dixie Deen in 1968, and the two would go on to write hundreds of bluegrass songs after Hall retired from performing in the 1990s, including “All That’s Left” which Miranda Lambert covered on her 2014 album, “Platinum.” Dixie Hall died in 2015.

In 2015, music legend Bob Dylan singled out Hall for some harsh criticism in a rambling speech at a MusiCares event. He called Hall’s song, “I Love,” “a little overcooked,” and said that the arrival of Kristofferson in Nashville “blew ol’ Tom T. Hall’s world apart.”

The criticism apparently confused Hall, as he considered Kristofferson a friend and a peer, and when asked about Dylan’s comments in an 2016 article for “American Songwriter” magazine, he responded, “What the hell was all that about?”

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Chicagoans seemed to be on board Friday with the city reinstating an indoor mask mandate – and Cook County residents will be under a similar requirement starting Monday.

County health officials announced that all individuals will be required to wear a mask indoor in multi-unit residential buildings and public places, such as restaurants, movie theaters, retail establishments, fitness clubs and on public transportation. Businesses have been ordered to post signs.

“We have no choice but to mandate that people wear masks indoors to help contain this spread of the virus,” Dr. Rachel Rubin, co-lead and senior medical officer of Cook County Department of Public Health, said in a statement.

The city and county mandates, which apply to anyone age 2 or older, regardless of vaccination status, come amid a surge in the Delta variant and after two months of relative face freedom following the lifting of most COVID-19 restrictions locally.

“It’s a little thing to prevent a big thing,” said Don Brogdon, 61, as he left a Mariano’s grocery store Friday in Roscoe Village.

Speaking through a mask adorned with playful Australian Shepherds, Mary Rhodes, 78, said bringing the mandate back was a “no brainer.”

“The mayor is doing the right thing, and I hope businesses enforce it,” said Rhodes, a retired fundraiser from North Center whose son, a therapist in Chicago, recently had a breakthrough case of COVID-19.

“And it’s the right thing for kids,” said Rhodes, noting she was old enough to remember the scourge of polio and how some kids had to be put on “iron lungs.”

She said she gets “ticked off” over people who refuse to wear masks because they feel it steps on their personal liberty.

“You can’t shout fire in a crowded theater, and those people that think their rights are being infringed upon need to read a little more,” she said.

Alaina Davis, 40, a data administrator for a large hospital system, said she hates masks but appreciates the need to wear one.

“I’m tired of it. For me to get a shot and be fully vaccinated and go through the side effects and still have to wear a mask, it’s hell, it’s really hell and it’s disappointing,” said Davis, who lives in Maywood and was leaving a salon in Humboldt Park after getting her hair done.

“But I think about the children and the elderly when it comes to wearing a mask,” she said. “You don’t want to see anyone fighting for their life on a ventilator.”

Eduardo Arocho, 50, who gives walking tours of Humboldt Park, thinks the mask mandate should never have been removed.

He pointed to himself as proof they work. “I haven’t died … so, so far so good,” Arocho said.

Edwin Torres, 34, and his wife, Emily Guerrero, 30, disagree on masks, but both will wear them.

“I think it’s a good thing because you don’t know who’s actually vaccinated and who’s not, so it would be the best thing for us to go back to a mask mandate until we get it under control,” Torres, a general contractor from Humboldt Park, said while walking his dogs.

For Guerrero, though, the toothpaste is already out of the bottle.

“It’s too late, the city opened up, and we did way too much to go back to the mask mandate. I feel like it’s pointless; whatever is going to happen already happened,” she said, referring to infectious spread.

Madelyn Amos, 23, applauded the mask mandate.

“I’ve had COVID, and it was horrible. So if I can protect someone from not having that experience I’d do what it takes, plus I have three friends who’ve had breakthrough cases,” she said.

Peter Hong, 51, a pastor from Logan Square who was headed inside a Planet Fitness in Logan Square to lift weights, said he’s “100 % in favor” of the mandate.

“I think it’s important for us to look out for the common good, or our collective need as a society,” he said.

Cornell Shepard, who works as a convention center security guard and lives in Bronzeville, doesn’t think COVID-19 is as dangerous as it’s being portrayed and doesn’t believe in masks — but he’ll wear one anyways.

“I think it’s just a simple cold,” Shepard, who is unvaccinated, said while filling up his car at a gas station at 47th Street and Michigan Avenue.

“The youth, we don’t need them. But I don’t have a problem with wearing a mask, I will abide by it. But it sucks, man, it sucks.”

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I was 9 the first time I completely choked during a competition. The gag was epic and unforgettable, and I’ll let you know if I ever live it down.

It was the fourth-grade classroom spelling bee, and I was certain I’d be one of the last students standing. I’d declared as much, too, to friends and foes alike.

My first-round word was “chief.” Just a warm-up word. A total softball. A waste of time, really. But all eyes were on me, and I suddenly remembered that ”I” comes before ”E” except after “C,” and I’d be damned if “chief” didn’t start with a “C.”

Uh-oh.

“C-H . . . E-I-F?”

I held it together until I got home. Then I cried. Wait. Creid?

I think about that every time I see children in competitions when the whole world is watching. The Olympics, with its baby gymnasts, divers and so on, is one of those occasions. The Little League World Series — unfolding for the next week-plus on ESPN and ABC — is another.

How do these 11- and 12-year-old ballplayers do it? How do they find the strike zone from the mound, turn two in the infield, stay composed at the plate in an 0-2 count?

Which brings me to my email inbox.

“The Little League World Series is can’t-miss TV,” came a missive heading into the first-round games Thursday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, “and now people can bet on the action.”

No. It can’t be.

“SportsBetting.ag has set odds for Game 1 of each series, as well as which team will advance from the Hank Aaron and Tom Seaver brackets to play in the LLWS Championship on Sunday, Aug. 29. Additionally, there are overall odds to take home the title. Hawaii is the favorite, followed closely by Pennsylvania and Tennessee.”

Of course it can be. There are odds on everything nowadays. When Japan’s Momiji Nishiya, 13, beat Brazil’s Rayssa Leal, also 13, for skateboarding gold in Tokyo, bettors won and bettors lost. When New Orleans eighth-grader Zaila Avant-garde won the Scripps Howard national spelling bee on ESPN in July, bettors who couldn’t spell the winning word — “murraya” — if their lives depended on it got ready to make it rain. Perhaps others cursed the girl.

“Murraya,” by the way, is defined as “a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers with imbricated petals.” But you probably knew that already.

There were four LLWS games Thursday, and two of them ended in victory for the biggest long shots in the field. Nebraska — at +1400 in the Aaron bracket — beat New Jersey 5-2. Ohio — at +1400 in the Seaver bracket — beat Tennessee 1-0. Why do I suspect Aaron and Seaver, both gone in the past year, are turning over in their graves?

I think of Nebraska’s 4-10, 85-pound outfielder Braeden Dyer and Ohio’s 4-11, 80-pound infielder Cooper Clay and want to throw my old arm around their puny shoulders in encouragement. Maybe buy them ice-cream cones. The idea of having money riding on those shoulders is twisted and unfathomable.

Am I a prude? No. I’ve done a lot of betting in my day — most of it illegal, the way it was meant to be. Through bookies at bars, the frightening sort. And with parlay cards, strip cards and heavy cash pools, all unsanctioned. But I was young and stupid. And then I was not that young but still stupid. I still love a poker game.

Betting is everywhere. PointsBet ads are ubiquitous on NBC Sports Chicago, the home of the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox. DraftKings is so in bed with the Cubs that a giant sports book is planned to go up adjacent to Wrigley Field.

Sports journalists — some of the air-quotes variety — talk out loud in ways they never used to about betting on games, teams and leagues they cover. It at least used to be hush-hush. There was the risk of perceived conflicts of interest, after all. Show me a writer who bets on the team he covers, and I’ll show you a writer whose opinions and work are informed at least somewhat by the results of those bets.

Now? Journalists tweet about their bets. I can’t stand it. But it’s a different time.

PointsBet, to name one outfit, didn’t get into the LLWS action. In a text exchange with SportsBetting.ag spokesman Josh Barton, I got the other side of that coin.

“We offer these odds for a reason,” he wrote. “The games are on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. When fans watch sports on TV, they are often inclined to wager on them in order to make the games even more entertaining.

“At the end of the day, people gamble on sporting events ‘kids’ participate in regularly. College sports have teenagers competing in them every day. You could bet on a 12-year-old playing Ping-Pong or a 13-year-old skateboarding at the Olympics this year. There are professional soccer players around the globe who are barely legal to drive.”

All right, then. Grab a bat, Cooper Clay. You’re up. And try not to let anybody down, Chief.

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Swae Lee performs on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park, Friday night, Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Chicago-native Supa Bwe jumps into the crowd as he performs on Day 1 of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park on Friday afternoon.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the ongoing debate over whether or not to have outdoor music festivals during a pandemic, along with high-profile deaths within Chicago’s music and culture scenes, the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash Festival kicked off Friday in Douglass Park.

The festival is headlined by A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, City Girls, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, Benny the Butcher, Gunna, Young M.A., Earl Sweatshirt, Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd and Waka Flocka Flame, among others.

The 20 local acts on the festival bill include Joey Purp, Queen Key, Cdot Honcho, Supa Bwe, Lil Eazzyy, Baha Bank$ and Femdot, along with a Juice WRLD tribute scheduled for Sunday night.

The festival, which was launched in 2013, was created by music video director Cole Bennett, who wanted to provide a platform to local rappers who are historically ignored by industry gatekeepers.

“I feel like that’s my biggest skill set is finding those local acts and even giving them a platform,” said festival co-founder Berto Solorio. “We take a lot of pride in a lot of our bookings that we booked early on. Some of the artists that we booked and start working with are just starting off their careers, but it’s so great to see them progress from their humble beginnings.”

Despite initial concerns regarding COVID-19 and mass-gathering events such as the recent Lollapalooza, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady announced last week that Lolla showed no signs of having been a “superspreader event.”

Summer Smash festival organizers are mandating festival-goers bring proof — screenshot, photo or email — of a recent negative COVID-19 test or COVID vaccination card. On Friday, security was checking IDs and proof of vax cards at the entrance. Festival officials also have notified attendees of local pharmacies (e.g. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart) in the vicinity of Douglass Park where rapid over-the-counter COVID tests are available.

“Every event I go to, I look at the processes,” said Solorio, who says he attended Lollapalooza. “I look at the things that they do to try to see their efficiencies and their inefficiencies and try to apply it to our event as best as possible.”

Chicago-native Baha Bank$ poses for a portrait backstage after performing on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park, Friday afternoon, Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

South Side rapper Baha Bank$, who performed on Friday, is reveling in her opportunity to shine. “For me this is really big, because not only am I a local artist, I’m a fairly new artist,” said Bank$. “I really feel the support for my city because it’s hard for women — especially as female artists. So for me to even get booked on this, it’s a big thing for me.”

Officials announced on social media this week West Side rapper Saba, the leader of local hip-hop collective Pivot Gang, who was scheduled to perform on Saturday’s slate, will not take the stage. Earlier this week, Saba’s fellow Pivot Gang member, and DJ, Squeak, and his uncle, were shot to death in Austin.

Summer Smash runs through Sunday.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed a controversial piece of legislation that makes changes to the state’s sex education curriculum that a sponsor of the legislation said would ensure no student feels “stigmatized or excluded” in the classroom.

“Modernizing our sex education standards will help keep our children safe and ensure important lessons like consent and internet safety are taught in classrooms,” Pritzker said in a statement. “By working together, we’ll continue to strengthen our education system and deliver the bright future our kids deserve.”

The new law ignited fireworks in the Senate when it was up for debate in May. One North Side senator demanded the remarks of a Republican colleague from southern Illinois be stricken from the record.

And the fireworks exploded all over again on Friday — with two GOP rivals blasting both the new law and the Democratic governor as “extreme.”

Pritzker signed two pieces of legislation Friday that address sex education standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

One bill adds personal health and safety education standards to curriculums for students in grades K-5 and makes health education more inclusive for those in grades 6 through 12. Schools can choose whether or not they adopt the standards unless they already teach comprehensive sexual health education.

Parents can choose to opt their child out.

Course material and instruction will help students “learn about concepts like consent and will develop self-advocacy skills for effective communication with parents or guardians, health and social service professionals, other trusted adults, and peers about health and relationships,” according to a news release.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, the Northwest Side Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a statement “no student should feel stigmatized or excluded in the classroom.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam speaks at a bill-signing ceremony at the Thompson Center earlier this month. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

“This legislation puts forth guidelines for an inclusive, culturally competent curriculum to keep students safe and healthy,” Villivalam said.

The legislation seeks to standardize the curriculum in Illinois schools.

During Senate debate in May, Villivalam told lawmakers that students would learn to define consent, gender identity, and different types of families, including cohabitating and same-sex couples, topics that will help students “understand a healthy relationship.”

But state Sen. Darren Bailey, a Republican from downstate Xenia who is running for governor, accused the bill’s Democratic sponsors of “pushing perversion in our schools.”

“Teachers who work hard to teach our kids about proper education have absolutely no reason in teaching this … absolute nonsense,” Bailey said at the time.

State Sen. Mike Simmons, who is gay, called Bailey’s remark “deeply offensive” and asked that it be stricken from the record at the time.

State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, left, in May; State Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, right, in February.Facebook; Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times after the bill advanced out of the state’s upper legislative chamber, Simmons characterized Bailey’s remarks as an attack on the LGBTQ community.

“I took it as a dog whistle intended to dehumanize a whole spectrum of diverse families … that includes LGBTQ people,” Simmons said. “I felt like it also was intended to shame young people – shaming their bodies.”

At the time, Bailey denied his remark about “perversion” referred to teaching students about same-sex relationships.

“The bill is obscene and fails to align with most community standards,” Bailey said in a statement. “It was created by activist organizations that don’t care about active parental consent or strong families.”

Also blasting Pritzker’s decision to sign the bill, GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul Schimpf said in a statement that Pritzker’s “misguided” decision “proves once again that he is too extreme to lead our state.”

Paul Schimpf, a former Republican state senator, announcing his bid for governor in February.Blue Room Stream

“Gov. Pritzker has shown an unwillingness to listen to the commonsense views of parents who want schools to focus on teaching academics, rather than social engineering,” the former state senator for downstate Waterloo said. “Now, more than ever, we need an Illinois Governor who understands that parents, not the government, should make decisions about their children’s education, healthcare, and maturation into adulthood.”

The other bill Pritzker signed requires classes that teach sex education to include an age-appropriate discussion regarding sexting. That unit will cover possible consequences for sharing or forwarding sexually explicit or suggestive messages, the importance of internet safety and the how strategies to resist peer pressure.

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It’s billed as the “premiere hip-hop music festival in the Midwest.” And with good reason. Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash Festival has returned, this time in a three-day iteration in Douglass Park, featuring an eclectic lineup of musicmakers and emcees.

Here’s a look at some of the sights and sounds of the 2021 festival.

Chicago native Baha Bank$ poses for a portrait backstage after performing on Day 1 of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Festival goers await entry on Day 1 of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park on Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Chicago-native Supa Bwe performs on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park, Friday afternoon, Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Chicago-native Supa Bwe jumps into the crowd as he performs on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park, Friday afternoon, Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Festival-goers dance as Chicago-native Supa Bwe performs on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park, Friday afternoon, Aug. 20, 2021.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Tears. The piano played hauntingly, the soloist’s voice floating above the tears and sorrow inside this airy sanctuary on a somber Wednesday morning. Tears for Marquise. Tears for all Chicago children shot or slain. Agony and rivers of bitter tears.

Endless tears over the gunfire that crackles across this bleeding city, claiming the innocent and young with no relenting. That steals our children almost from the cradle.

That now rings with numbing normalcy and largely is reduced to the weekend newspaper round-up. That robs us all of hope and humanity, leaving a trail of carnage wrought by evil.

Not by guns. But by miscreants who wantonly pull the trigger in what seems to be the worst of times, where none are safe. A world where rage and moral decay and bullets leave a trail of blood. And tears.

Tears fell inside the Faith Community of St. Sabina, where a life-size cutout of Marquise L. Richardson reflected in bright white light near his casket, smiling and clad in a button-down white shirt and deep blue bowtie. And the piano played…

Ashley Adams, mother of Marquise Richardson, 14, is comforted on the stairs of The Faith Community of St. Sabina where her son’s funeral service was held, as Father Michael L. Pfleger stands nearby.John W. Fountain

The hands of Christ and the gold-lighted JESUS sign formed the backdrop for this agonizing and also celebratory occasion. Mourners sat inside, the back of one young man’s white T-shirt emblazoned with the words in blue script: “Long Live Marquise.”

Except Marquise is dead.

Reportedly shot twice in the head on July 29, while sitting in a parked car in front of his home, in the 1600 block of West Waseca Place, when someone in another car reportedly opened fire, wounding Marquise and an unidentified 29-year-old man. Marquise died two days later.

He was a smiley kid. He had nothing to do with nothing. Affectionately called “Quise,” he was Ashley Adams’ firstborn. A caring big brother. A loyal friend. A schoolboy.

In June, he graduated 8th grade at St. Sabina Academy. Five days later, he turned 14. About a month later, he was gone. No major headlines. No pause in this city’s summer body count. No stagger in the pulse of life in this murderous city.

Pallbearers carry the casket of Marquise Richardson to an idling hearse.John W. Fountain

No media. No cameras. No public chronicling of mourning here at Marquise’s service. Only family. Teachers. Friends. Among them Marquise’s classmates and his little brothers.

As I walked into the sanctuary, ingesting the crowd of young people, Marquise’s casket, and the life-sized smiling cutout, tears filled my eyes, then overflowed. Overwhelmed that after more than 30 years of covering this story, we are still burying our children.

I sat there, angry with God. Until the preacher and others who spoke said again and again that this is not God’s fault… I know it is not. But it makes no damn sense.

As the air blew cold, the preacher shared words of comfort, even as family consoled one another with pats on the back, another Kleenex, an embrace. Father Michael L. Pfleger spoke fondly of Marquise’s love for old-school music, particularly rap, and for old-school cars.

He shared memories of Marquise as a “teacher,” as a kind soul who loved to tell jokes, even if they weren’t always funny. Of his love for football. About the “deep impact he made” in his few years. Then, in fiery tones, he called for an end to Chicago’s violence.

There were prayers. And tears. Laughter. And tears.

Grief, anger, disillusionment, and tears.

“Welcome home, Marquise,” Pfleger intoned in the end. “Welcome home. We’ll see you in the morning.”

The song, “Melodies From Heaven” played as Marquise’s blue casket was ushered down the middle aisle to the front door, into the bright light, where pallbearers carried him down the church’s stairs to an idling hearse soon bound for the cemetery.

Tears.

Send letters to [email protected].

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