Charlotte minister ‘Uncle Willis’ — saxophonist, jazz star at the Apollo — dies

His stage name was “Little Walkin’ Willie” — but he was just as well known and well loved as “Uncle Willis.”

Willis Hickerson Sr. was a young, self-taught jazz saxophonist with a talent so rare that audiences packed juke joints, dance halls and other venues on the East Coast and in Canada to hear him play, including the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y., and Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.

His career was briefly interrupted by his service in the Army.

But all during Hickerson’s early adult years as a jazz musician, God was preparing him for a life of ministry, Hickerson recalled many decades later in his self-written obituary.

He eventually left the blues stage and sought ministerial tutoring from his brother, Rev. Charles Hickerson Sr., at Zion Baptist Church in Altoona, Pa. That launched a pastoral career that lasted until his death at age 89 on Jan. 4 in Charlotte.

His final post stretched 21 years, as minister of The Park Church Pacesetters seniors ministry. His nephew, Bishop Claude Richard Alexander Jr., is senior pastor of the church.

Dad was pastor, too

Born in 1932 in Coffeyville, Kansas, Willis Hickerson followed his father, Rev. Carl Que Hickerson Sr., into the ministry. After pastoring in Topeka, Kansas, his father moved the family to Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., to lead churches.

Willis Hickerson grew up in the nation’s capitol, learning to play the piano and singing in a junior choir, he wrote in his obituary. He performed his first saxophone concert at Gethsemane Baptist, the D.C. church his father served.

He later formed a band and invented his stage name, which reflected his “style and showmanship,” he wrote in his obituary.

But the pull of Jesus was great, he said. He delivered his first sermon in Altoona and later left for Los Angeles for tutoring by a pastor uncle before Hickerson pastored churches in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

‘God is always there’

“One thing I know is God is always there,” Hickerson said in a videotaped interview late in his life that was played at his Celebration of Life service at St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte on Wednesday. His nephew, Bishop Claude Richard Alexander Jr., was the interviewer.

“He has all power ... and you can’t escape him,” Hickerson said. “By leaning on him, by trusting in him, resting in him, when I do that, I’m drawn closer to him, and He trusts me to walk in his way.”

Hickerson came to Charlotte in 2000 “at my invitation,” Alexander told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday, hours after presiding at his uncle’s funeral.

‘Never met a stranger’

Alexander said his uncle “nurtured” his ministerial path since Alexander first felt called by God.

His uncle was “jovial, a comedian, never met a stranger,” Alexander said. “And yet, he was very, very serious. He took his ministry seriously. He took his family seriously.”

Hickerson “met everyone on their own level,” Alexander said. “He saw the best in them and wanted the best for them.”

What Alexander will miss most about his uncle, he said, is “his assuring and encouraging presence. I will miss him. I miss him already.”

Known nationwide

Hickerson’s funeral drew ministers from across the country. His burial at Salisbury National Cemetery was conducted with military honors.

“It didn’t matter where you were from, what your level of education was, what your ministry experience was, he loved you the way you were,” Claybon Lea Jr., senior pastor at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield, California, told the gathering. “He accepted you the way you were, and loved you into somebody you didn’t know you had the potential to become.”

“Uncle Willis was known all over this country,” Claybon said, referring to the familiar way everyone addressed him. “And he was a staple at every session he could attend of the National Baptist Convention, where I looked forward to seeing him every year And he would bless us in the hallways.”

Carl Solomon. senior pastor at United Baptist Church in Baltimore, described his friend as “wise, witty, resilient, resourceful, anointed, gifted, talented. That is the makeup of who we call Uncle Willis. One of a kind.”

Speaking for the Park Church Pacesetters ministry, Shirley Johnson Brown said Hickerson “was truly an example of how every Christian should live. He was a unique person, a true servant.

“I think Uncle Willis entered into the joy of the Lord blowing his horn, his saxophone, and I know he did, because (we) took him to get a new mouthpiece,” she said to smiles and some laughter from those at the service.

Hickerson is survived by a brother, Ernest Hickerson of Pensacola Fla.; daughters Carolyn Elizabeth Shannon of Locust, N.C.; Venus Adora Hickerson-Hamilton of Accokeek, Maryland and Vousette TresBelle Miller of Clinton, Maryland; sons, Rev. Willis Murphy Hickerson Jr. of Charlotte and Carl Que Hickerson of Waldorf, Maryland; nine grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and 11 great great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Park Church Scholarship Fund, in memory of Rev. Willis M. Hickerson Sr., The Park Church, 6029 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC 28216.