En Route to LAX with Roberta Flack

On the passing of an iconic voice from my parents' generation

I don’t have many “celebrity encounter” stories to tell, but I do have one very positive memory about meeting Roberta Flack on a flight from JFK to Los Angeles back in the early 2000s.

I was a relatively young teacher at the time, not particularly well-traveled, and I suppose that I also had money to burn. I decided to fly to LA for the weekend to visit a college friend. The airline presented me with a discounted First Class upgrade, and I took it.

Picture this: a naive 20-something me, armed with a hefty stack of ninth-grade papers, embarking on my first solo first trip to the West Coast. Row 1, Seat A. Credit card be damned!

The woman sitting to my right boarded before me. She was a definitely a celebrity, and while I couldn’t place her, I could tell that she was somebody. It wasn't until a casual phone call she made before takeoff- “This is Roberta Flack calling" – that her identity was revealed.

And what followed was, quite simply, lovely.

I recall that our initial conversation sparked from her curiosity about my stack of papers. She, with genuine warmth, inquired about my work, about the “memoirs” my students had just completed. And then, with genuine interest, she asked to read some. Read them. Can you imagine?

I do not recall the specifics of our discussion, but what I do remember…quite clearly… is that she was kind, very kind.

We chatted for hours, about my work, about her work, about her recent collaboration with Clive Davis, and about other assorted things that I cannot pretend to recall, even if I try.

After our flight landed, Ms. Flack was quickly swallowed by the LAX bustle, leaving me (and all of my unfinished grading) without a chance to say “so long.”

As I read Roberta Flack’s obituary in today’s news, I learned that was once herself a teacher. Before becoming a Grammy-winning artist, 20-something she taught music to junior high students in the D.C. metro area.

She might have shared that about herself then. I don’t remember. Nevertheless, discovering this truth about her was a quiet echo of the genuine warmth she'd shown me on that evening flight to LA many years ago.

In a world filled with fleeting moments and manufactured encounters, this stands out – a reminder of the quiet grace of a legendary artist.

May she rest in peace.