KARYN White’s stomach was doing somersaults.
This was her moment of truth.
And as she picked up the telephone and called Minneapolis, she understood clearly that when the call was over she would either be one happy–or humiliated–young woman.
As the phone rang, she closed her eyes and pictured what she would say when Terry Lewis came on the line. I can’t stop thinking about you? I want to be more than friends. She had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth. All she knew for certain was that, after months of long-distance conversation, she was finally going to tell Lewis how she felt about him.
“For a long time, I didn’t know where he was coming from,” says White of lewis, the Grammy-winning producer of Jimmy (Jam) Harris and Terry Lewis fame whom she had met in 1989 while recording at their Flyte Tyme Productions Studios in Minneapolis. “We would have these long, great conversations; and while I knew I really liked him, I would hang up wondering how he felt about me. It was like, What are you waiting for?’ Finally, I just had to say it. I told my girlfriend, “That’s it. I’m doing it today.’ So I called him up … and I just said, Look, I want to tell you something. I really like you.’”
Though she didn’t know it at the time, making that phone call was one of the best decisions of her life. Two years later, the Los Angeles-born singer, who has been cited as one of the 10 most beautiful women in Black America, is not only married to the man at the other end of the phone, he also produced her top-selling album.
“This is what my life would sound like if it could sing,” says White of the album she named Ritual of Love to describe her romance with lewis, with whom she eloped to Las Vegas last March.”I feel like it’s a private journal.”
White’s real-life private journal reads like a fairy tale–and not just because she married her prince. In 1988, her self-titled debut album not only sold 2 million copies, it also yielded three Top 10 singles and four No.1 hits–an unheard-of achievement for a rookie recording act its first time out. Now, at 26, the singer who quit the high school cheerleading squad “because it was destroying the texture of my voice” has the music world abuzz over her talent as a songwriter (she co-wrote 10 of the album’s 12 songs) and business executive (she’s also co-producer).
But it isn’t her status as a music business diva that White sees as her greatest blessing. That, she says, is family.”I’m so much happier with my life now,” she confides, staring out of the living room window of the $2 million lakefront home she and Lewis recently bought on the outskirts of Minneapolis. “I’m not out there searching. Before Terry, I didn’t really have anyone to share my success with. Now I have a family who will love me whether I never sell another record. This family is my anchor. This family is forever. “
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When White says “this family,” she isn’t just talking about lewis. Me moment she said “I do” last March, she became an instant mom. Lewis, 34, had custody of his two children: his 11-year-old son, Tremayne, and his 7-year-old daughter, Chloe. Then, shortly after the marriage, the couple adopted 5-year-old Branden, the son of a young and distant relative of White’s. And no, White says, she’s never had a child herself despite the widely reported rumor that was started, she says, “by someone who wanted it to be true and couldn’t deal with the fact I only wanted to be friends.”
She did, however, want to be more than friends with Lewis, ironically, in large part because of his relationship with his children. Any man as busy as Terry who puts everything second to make sure his family is taken care of the way he wants them to be is special, ” says White, noting that she and Lewis plan to enlarge their brood with children of their own “when the time is right.”
In fact, say the newlyweds, their children are among the main reasons they decided to buy their dream house in suburban Minneapolis, far from the glitz–and pressures–of Hollywood. “This home is our refuge,” says Lewis, who has filled virtually every room with his eclectic collection of priceless African art. “I’m a strong advocate of keeping kids out of show business. it’s hard enough for an adult to handle all the pressures. This home is far away from all of that. it’s the place our kids can just be kids and where Karyn and I can restore and create. And most of all, it’s private.”
That’s probably why, after learning how White felt about him, lewis didn’t go to Los Angeles, but instead invited White to visit him in Minneapolis for his birthday. Before she accepted, Lewis warned her, he wanted her to know one thing: romantically, she might not interest him at aH.
“I’m a very direct person,” he says, “so I told her, `I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I might not like you.’ Talking on the phone is one thing, but spending time together is something else.” How did White respond? She didn’t flinch. She said, “That’s great because I might not like you either,’” says Lewis, cracking up, “I said, `Well, cool. Then come on down.’”
She did and two months later, for New Years 1990, White sent Lewis a roundtrip ticket to Tokyo where she was performing. “I paid for everything, and I think that really surprised him,” she recalls. “I don’t think he’d ever experienced a woman doing anything like that for him before.”
After his arrival,Lewis discovered his ticket was just the first surprise. In the middle of her show, White stopped the concert and dedicated her hit duet, “Love Saw It,” to him. “He’s such a private person,” she says, “I think he was embarrassed at first. But he knew it was from the heart.”
And the gesture clearly touched him. Not long after she returned to the States, Lewis asked her to many him on a flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. Excusing himself from his seat, he asked the flight attendant to give her a card “explaining exactly how he felt about me,” White remembers.”At the end, he’d written,`Will you marry me?’ And when I looked up he was standing there with a ring.”
Like the 3 1/2 carat diamond she still wears today, White and Lewis’ professional lives are glittering. As her album continues to rise, White is preparing for an international tour. When she returns, she will begin what she considers her truly important travel: visiting high schools across the country to encourage youths to avoid teen pregnancy.
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“I want to be a role model,” she says, “and talk to teenagers about what it really means to be a superwoman.” She recently established the Karyn White Foundation “dedicated to stopping the vicious cycle, especially among Blacks, of having children out of wedlock.”
Now that lewis has finished White’s album, with partner Jimmy [Jaml Harris, he’s producing a host of new projects–R&B group Law Key, vocalisr Lisa Keith, the Mo’ Money film soundtrack–all scheduled for release this year. In the meantime, he’s also preparing to write and produce new albums for Johnny Gill and Janet Jackson, both of whom are traveling to Minneapolis to record at Flyte Tyme Studios.
How do White and Lewis keep it all in perspective? Easy, says White,recalling the words her mother gave her when she was a little girl. “We live by the three Ps of life. Prayer, perseverance and patience. That’s what it takes and that’s what we try to do.”
REMOVE THAT SCARF! YOUR HANDSOME!
Awww…
