For years, Phyllis Adams kept a secret. She revealed it on Thursday morning before the president of the United States, four former presidents and millions of people watching throughout the world, as she sang “Amazing Grace” at funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter.
Adams, a 1983 Kathleen High School graduate, said planning for this day began about eight years ago. “So amen for that,” she said, speaking as she went through airport security following the service.
The Carter family first heard Adams sing at the 2017 Carter Center Human Rights Defenders Forum. After that performance, she said, she was approached by the Carters to sing at the former president’s funeral.
Her audience today at Washington National Cathedral included President Joe Biden; past Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and their wives; members of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court; military leaders and foreign dignitaries.
Achiever: Adams was always a high achiever. She served as a senior class officer at Kathleen and was captain of her cheerleading squad.
She wanted to study fashion design and move to New York City, but her aunt, who often heard Adams sing at First Baptist institutional Church, had other ideas.
“My aunt said, ‘No, you are going to Bethune Cookman College … You are going to audition for the concert chorale and get a chorale scholarship,” Adams recalled. “When you were my age you didn’t talk back, but I looked at my aunt with one eyebrow raised.”
Her Aunt, Helen Baker, was a music teacher at Rochelle School of the Arts.
Adams said sure enough she auditioned for the Bethune Cookman College Concert Chorale and learned to sing better and that was the launch of her singing career.
Career: Adams works full time as an international flight attendant for Delta Airlines and said she has tried to walk away from singing because she wasn’t sure she was good enough.
“But every time I would open my mouth, whether it was a church or wedding, people would say, ‘Who are you who?’” Adams said. “It just wouldn’t go away. I knew it was the Lord. He would not let me let it go.”
Connecting with the Carters: Adams lives in Atlanta and sang at a private, intimate wedding reception in 2017. A man working in the band heard her sing and told his wife, who worked at The Carter Center, that she needed to hear Adams, too.
That’s how Adams was invited to sing for the Human Rights Defenders Forum. She gave a powerful rendition of The Lord’s Prayer, accompanied by Lelia Bolden on piano. They formed the duo Song Rise to Thee.
“They just kind of fell in love with us,” Adams said about the Carters. “And then the next thing I knew I got this call.”
Carter put a lot of thought into the pre-planning of his funeral, inviting former President Gerlad Ford to speak, as well as current President Joe Biden, who was the first major Democrat to endorse Carter when he announced his bid for the White House in 1976.
Part of Carter’s plan was to have Adams sing “Amazing Grace.”
“I knew, but I couldn’t tell anybody,” she said, adding that she had to tell Bolden, and also swore to secrecy one or two other people close to her. “We had to keep it under wraps.”
An honor: When the Carters asked her to perform at his funeral, she said she was surprised and honored.
“It’s just honor honor honor – for them,” she said. “None of it was ever about me – they were such honorable people. The most honorable thing about them to me is the fact that we share the same faith and the same Lord. That is the biggest connection I have with them.”
Another Lakeland connection: Adams was accompanied by the Marine Band, which performed at the funeral and plays at numerous White House functions. Lakeland native Carrie Bean Stute, who was valedictorian at Harrison School for the Arts in 2002, is the band’s assistant principal cello player and could be seen as the camera panned the Marine Band during Adams’ performance.
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greg osborne As tears go by. Such a beautiful voice and choir.
Phyllis was phenomenal! The Carter’s picked a wonderful singer who sang with class, dignity and grace. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
I am a singer. Phyllis was dynamic and she is wonderfully blessed with a great gift from God.