A Closer Walk With Thee

Just past noon on a Saturday in early March, the first warm weekend of the year, the only sound on South Kent Street was a screen door slapping behind two teenage girls as they crossed a short lawn. In black hoodies and tight, neon-highlighted ponytails, the pair turned and walked behind the yellow house they had come out of, possibly headed for the shallow creek just past the rear property line, or maybe to the train tracks beyond that.

The sidewalks are cracked and shifted on Kent Street. The porches are peeling. Sixty years ago, the residents of this gently hilly enclave on the east side of Winchester, Va., were strictly white working class. Today they’re more ethnically diverse, like the city generally, though each house still looks like a place where people have to make their money stretch. All except for no. 608, which looks exactly as it did back when the street was only white folks. That Saturday, a small crowd had gathered outside, and JudySue Huyett-Kempf was smiling anxiously as she shook hands on the porch, welcoming everyone to the former home of one of the best-known singers in the world. Continue Reading