Johnny Mathis: I was born in Texas in a little town called Gilmer. I don’t remember too much about it because my dad took the family from — I guess I was about four when I left Gilmer, and we went to San Francisco and I started my schooling there, went to Roosevelt Junior High School. I went to Emerson Grammar School and then on to George Washington High School. Yes, I did sing. I sang for a year and a half to pay for all my books and my tuition at San Francisco State College, and I got odd jobs. But before that, when I was about 12, my dad asked me if — my dad was a good singer and I learned all of his songs — and then in order to progress a little bit more, he asked me if I’d like to take voice lessons. So we looked around San Francisco for someone to help me out and we found a wonderful lady in Oakland. Her name was Connie Cox. And Connie taught me for about seven years. Voice lessons free of charge. I would clean her apartment and run errands for her, and she was the angel. She was the one who guided me and said, “This is what I think you can do.”