About this item
Officer Clemmons: A Memoir details the incredible life story of Franois Clemmons, beginning with his early years in Alabama and Ohio, marked by family trauma and loss, through his studies as a music major at Oberlin College, where Clemmons began to investigate and embrace his homosexuality, to a chance encounter with Fred Rogers which changed the whole course of both men's lives, leading to a deep, spiritual friendship and mentorship spanning nearly forty years. When he earned the role as "Officer Clemmons" on the award-winning television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Clemmons made history as the first African American actor to have a recurring role on a children's program. A new, wide world opened for Francois -- but one which also required him to make painful personal choices, and sacrifices.
About the Author
Dr. François Scarborough Clemmons is an Afro-American singer, actor, playwright and university lecturer. He is perhaps best known for his appearances as the singing police officer, "Officer Clemmons," on the award-winning PBS television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.Dr. Clemmons received a bachelor of music degree from Oberlin College and a master of fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University. He also received two honorary doctor of arts degrees from Middlebury College and Sewanee: The University of the South. In 1973, he won a Grammy Award for a recording of Porgy and Bess; in 1986, he founded and directed the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble; and from 1997 until his retirement in 2013, Clemmons was the Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence and director of the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he currently resides.https://francoisclemmons.net/
