Community gathers to bid farewell to Jo Jo Benson

R&B legend Jo Jo Benson was remembered Saturday as a caring person who gave more to others than he received in return.

Benson, born Joseph Hewell in Phenix City, died at age 76 of heart failure in Columbus on Dec. 23. With donations from a Columbus native as well as friends and supporters across the country, Benson's family was able to hold a "Going Home Ceremony" during a service at Occasions Event Center on Victory Drive.

Peggy Scott-Adams, who partnered with Benson on three hit singles -- "Lover's Holiday," "Picking Wild Mountain Berries" and "Soulshake" -- in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was among about 250 people who filled the center.

Scott-Adams said Benson was a good person and a giving person. She was 17 years old when she came to Columbus to team up with him. Benson was like a father to her, she said. Scott-Adams joked that she probably could have found a good husband if it hadn't been for Benson.

She said she thought the two would be working on separate projects but that God had a plan when the two landed record deals together.

Benson had a powerful personality, said Scott-Adams, who recently moved from Los Angeles to Pensacola, Fla. "He would charm your clothes off," she said.

As a tribute to her former singing partner, she sang an a cappella version of "When I've Gone the Last Mile Of The Way."

State Sen. Ed Harbison recalled how he met Benson in March 1972 when he moved to Columbus to serve as news director at WOKS radio. "He was a good friend," he said.

Harbison remembered when Benson was performing in Columbus and a man on the front row tried to upstage him by singing along. Harbison saidhe couldn't repeat the words Benson hurled at the man before he stopped singing.

"Jo would let you know where he stood," Harbison said. "He was a down-to-earth people person. To me, that was his strength. He was a people person doing the people's work. He is taking that holiday now."

Rasheeda Ali, a former radio disc jockey, said Benson put her job in jeopardy by pushing her to play his music on the radio. "When he needed me to play his music, I played it," she said.

Ali said she will never forget when Benson stepped into the Talley Ho Grill where she worked and ordered a sandwich with collard greens. "I stayed mad at him for 25 years for that," she said. "I just want to say if anybody can be mad at Jo it could be me. When I stopped speaking to him for about a year, he said, 'You know how I am.'"

Ricky Steele, a chief development officer at Hunter Technical Resources in Atlanta, set up a website where people could contribute to Benson's funeral. He said about $8,200 had been raised for the service by Saturday with donations as small as $10 and high as $500, and that the money was matched by MusiCares, a Grammy-affiliated foundation.

"It was a beautiful service," Steele said. "I think Mr. Benson would have been very honored."

Steele said his connection to Benson dates back to 1969 when he worked at the Ralston Hotel gas station.

"I used to wash his car for him," he said. "He was always very nice to me, a 17-year-old kid who loved music. I've been chasing music all my life. I would have been one of the greatest entertainers of all time if I had any talent. I had no talent but I liked to listen."

One night when he was a teenager, Steele said, Benson invited him to visit his club.

"I said not a lot of white kids come from the Hardaway High School district and go to the club at night," Steele said. "He said, 'I don't care. Just come, knock on the back door and ask for Jo Jo.'"

Steele said he never told his parents about his visits to the club, which became a weekend tradition. "I have not laid eyes on him since 1979," he said of Benson. "It's been over 35 years."

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr. said Benson will be honored in the Congressional Record when Congress meets next week.

Rep. Calvin Smyre wasn't at the service but issued a statement saying that Benson was a friend for many years.

"We talked a week prior to his passing," Smyre said. "He contributed significantly to the music industry as a musician. With two Grammy Awards, recipient of Gold Records and a Columbus Ambassador of Music, he should be in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame."

The Rev. Gaston Dillon, who gave the eulogy, said Benson was teaching those gathered at the center a lesson.

"What I'm going to say is we all have to go this way," he said. "It costs you more to go out than when you came in. We all are going to have to leave here one day. He is teaching us as he goes. Get your house in order. Prepare for a trip that you know you are going to have to take."

Dillon said Benson had rededicated himself to Christ, and that he was helping to build a new church and had been talking about singing again.

"You can't judge a book by its cover," he said.

This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Community gathers to bid farewell to Jo Jo Benson."