David Camon
Loved his music.
He loved his family.
He loved his church.
Above all,
He loved his God.
He loved with a fierce love,
A protective love,
An obedient love.
David Camon loved his music
His son-in-law Patrick
Said that David was for him
An example of true freedom:
A strong man so free
To be true to his passion,
Allowing nothing and no one
To define him
Or confine him.
When David asked Lynda to marry him,
He said, “Lynda,
I love you and want to spend my life with you.
But you need to know,
There’s another woman in my life,
And she gets 95% of me.
Her name is Music.”
Lynda understood
That David could no more live without this other woman,
His Music,
Than he could live without air,
And so she made sure no one interfered
When he was immersed in the act of creating
Something new and beautiful
That the world had never heard.
David woke up
Every day at 3 am
with his autistic son Bookie.
They had their quiet time together
And then David went to work.
Above all,
David was a composer,
A writer,
A creator,
Driven every day to create a new song,
A new thing that the world had never heard.
The rest of the family
Had no choice
But to wake up early
To hear David stomping his foot
And playing his songs
David couldn’t stand for anyone to hear a bad note;
Very demanding of everyone,
But no one more than himself.
Musicians who played in the church band –
Budding, like my son who started playing
With the band at 8 years old –
And gold-record winning musicians as well –
Were shaking in their boots
When they hit a bad note.
He made them want to be the very best
They could be.
David Camon loved his family
He and Lynda were still kissing
And carrying on until the very end
Lynda said,
“David was my friend.
We laughed all the time,
And talked about everything.”
David reminded Lynda over and over,
“No matter how tough things may have been,
Lynda, we are going to keep our covenant.
We are going to keep our covenant.”
David kept his family around him
And did all he could to teach
His sons and nephews
What it means to be a man.
He urged them, supported them, scolded them,
directed them, and encouraged them
To do what they were born to do.
He told them time and again,
“Be true to your passion.
“Whatever you do,
Give it your all.
“Never give up.
“Keep the faith.
“I’m proud of you.”
He did all he could
To teach his daughter,
Who was always his baby girl,
This is what it is to be a woman,
And to him there were no limits on what she could do.
He told her,
“You can be absolutely anything
And do absolutely anything
That your heart desires.
There are no limits on you.
“And don’t let anyone tell you
That because you are a girl
You can’t conquer the world,”
And “I’ll support you no matter what you choose.”
When she was 7,
He took her on a practice date
To McDonalds
To make sure she understood
what she deserved from a man –
Someone who respects you,
Supports you,
Honors you,
And treats you like the Queen you are,
Whether at The Ritz or McDonalds.
On Saturday mornings
David and Lynda wake up early
And lie in bed
Drinking coffee and talking.
As each person in the house woke up,
They would crawl into bed
With David and Lynda
And talk until the afternoon
About politics, sports, religion,
Faith (which is different than religion) and life.
Even friends and cousins
Who were spending the night
Would crawl in bed
For this sacred ritual.
And we’re not just talking about
When the children were young.
We’re talking about when they were grown.
We’re talking about 6 or 7 grown folks
Piled in the bed
Every Saturday morning
Talking until the afternoon.
David’s heart was broken
To see Yari become so ill,
And to see his daughter suffer
Alongside her daughter.
You can be sure
That when he wasn’t at the hospital
He was on his knees,
Praying that precious baby girl
Back to health.
David Camon loved his church
One day over 16 years ago,
As I was beginning to create
Beloved Community Church,
Where all people would be celebrated
As precious children of God,
LeNard brought David and Marty
To meet me.
It wasn’t just a casual meeting.
One by one,
David and Marty interviewed me.
They didn’t just interview me,
They grilled me.
They had to make sure
I was for real
And that God was the one
Creating this new thing.
They were a band of brothers
And it became clear to me
That when it came to starting the church,
They were a package deal
David went home that day
And told Lynda,
“Brown, Marty, and I are starting a church.”
She thought they had lost their minds.
But once they committed,
They were all in.
Not just for the music,
But for the church
That they came to love so fiercely.
I couldn’t have done the church without him.
His music made it possible
For me to do what I had to do as a pastor.
David gave me strength,
And guidance.
David had the gift
Of discernment of spirits –
Do you know what that means?
He would say to me,
“Angie, that’s the devil!”
and “Angie, that is God speaking!”
I trusted his intuition.
He never missed church
Unless he was stuck in some airport
On the way home
from playing in Japan or Europe,
And he never missed church
No matter how sick he was
Until the very end.
David not only played music
But he preached.
Now I’m sure all of you have heard David “preach”
When he got riled up
About something he was passionate about.
You’ve all heard him hold forth.
But you may not have been so fortunate
to hear him preach in church.
He had a gift of the Spirit.
David Camon loved God
David was above all
Obedient to what God called him to be and do.
God instructed him to write,
And he would not rest
Until he had fulfilled what God had called him to do.
God told David to write an opera,
And write an opera he did.
He wrote hundreds of pages –
Every note, every chord,
All the lyrics
To an entire opera.
And he did it more than once.
God told David to put the Psalms to music,
And put the psalms to music he did.
God told David
To write a gospel album
And write a gospel he did.
Even the love songs he wrote
Were filled with the spirit of God.
David was obedient
And he was grateful.
Even standing in the ashes
After he lost his home
and almost all of his music to a fire,
David found a way
To be grateful.
Out of the ashes of his home and his music
He found a way to make an offering to God
In his gospel album.
David had a fierce, protective love
For his music, his family,
His church and his God.
He protected what he loved.
When there was a storm,
He made the entire family
Get in the bathtub,
While he walked around with his weather radio
until the danger had passed.
The bathtub was crammed full
Not just when his children were small
But when they were grown folks –
Like the Saturday morning bed,
A bathtub full of grown folks
Watched over by David.
David protected his Beloved church.
He left church with LeNard
In the middle of the service every Sunday
To walk around outside
And make sure everyone inside was safe.
Some might have thought
that David was taking a smoke break,
and I’m sure it’s possible that he may have lit up
While he walked around the church.
But it wasn’t a smoke break,
It was putting himself on the line
To protect the church he loved
In obedient service of the God he loved.
David prayed for us –
He prayed for our families
He prayed for our safety
He prayed that we would be
In right relationship
With each other and with God.
He gave us many gifts
But there is surely
No greater gift than that
“Somebody’s gotta win,
Somebody’s gotta lose
Somebody’s gotta laugh
Somebody’s gotta cry”
It’s our turn to cry
As we release him
Into the arms of his beloved Savior
I pray that
As we walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death
We can be as David was,
Always thankful,
Always obedient,
Always praying,
Always giving thanks
For our blessings
Even in midst of unimaginable loss
David was always the navigator
On the Controllers’ long bus ride to shows
All over the country.
He got them where they needed to be
And he got them there on time.
He will continue
To show us the way
To live in freedom
And to die in peace,
Always in deep communion
With our families, our loved ones,
Our work, and our God
In that way,
David lives.
He lives.
He lives.
Thanks be to God.
Eulogy by Rev. Angie Wright delivered at Greater New Antioch Baptist Church in Birmingham on August 13, 2016.
