The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

CALLICOON, NY (March 28, 2011) – Before his concert at the Villa Roma Resort and Conference Center on Saturday, March 26, country singer Jimmy Wayne spoke to a small gathering of Sullivan County officials and dignitaries.

He told them how honored he was to be the National Spokesperson for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), and how he walked halfway across the country – starting in Nashville and ending in Phoenix – to raise awareness “for youth who are aging out of the system and becoming homeless, I was one of those kids myself.” He called it an epidemic.

Wayne told about how he learned to roll cigarettes when he was 12, and later sold marijuana seeds mixed in with tomato leaves to the “potheads in the neighborhood.” He did it to raise money to send to his imprisoned mother, so she could buy cigarettes.

He didn’t see his mother till more than a week after her prison release, and when he did, she was with a man who Wayne thought was a pretty good guy – until he saw the boyfriend shoot people – and until the boyfriend and the mother abandoned Wayne at the side of a country road.

Wayne was homeless at the age of 13. “I went from being sad to being very mad. I had to get tough.”

And then Wayne did something that saved his life. “I was going down the road and saw an elderly man cutting wood on a bandsaw. Something told me to go in and ask him if he had any work I could do. I really was trying to stay out of trouble, I’d seen enough crime, my mom was in prison, my dad had never been around my whole life, so I just wanted to stay away from that stuff.”

Wayne was determined to do something good. “Sir do you have any work I can do?” he asked the man. “He turned around and looked at me and said, ‘You need to ask the boss over here.’ And he pointed at his wife, this little white-haired lady, cotton dress, sawdust all over her arm.’ ”

Shutting off the radial-arm saw she was “manhandling,” the woman said to Wayne, “We don’t have any work in here, but you can cut the grass this afternoon.”

“Every week I would show up and cut their grass,” Wayne continued. He explained that the woman asked him where he lived, and, not wanting to reveal his plight, he replied that he just lived up the street.

“I was wondering if you would be interested in living in our home,” said Beatrice Costner.

“Here I was, a long-haired kid … a typical street kid just trying to make it somehow. And I’m thinking this is going to be just like it’s always been. I’m going to move in and a few days later they’ll say ‘we can’t keep you.’ I’d already been in 12 schools in two years,” said Wayne, “I was used to people not committing. I figured I’d stay a couple of days … so I could take a shower.”

Wayne moved into the home of Russell and Beatrice Costner. He described the house as a mansion – “they had a two-car garage, I had my own bed. And I’m thinking any day now … this is too perfect. Sure enough about five days after I move in, Russell – who was a military guy – a tough guy, he didn’t say much, but when he did, there was no misunderstanding what he said – Russell put his hand on my arm and said we have to talk.”

Instead of telling him to leave, Russell told Wayne that he had to get his hair cut and go to church.

“I stayed at this family’s house for 6 years. So many people helped me because they saw I was trying to help myself.”

Wayne was able to attend a community college where he majored in criminal justice “because I knew a lot about it.” He went to work in a prison where he literally ran into all his friends some of whom were his foster brothers.

“This family gave me an opportunity to pursue my dreams. I wanted to sing music, I wanted to write songs. Had it not been for that one family I wouldn’t be here. They saved my entire life.”

Wayne was named as the National Spokesperson for CASA just a couple of weeks ago, and recently gave the keynote address at CASA’s 30th Annual Conference in Chicago. He compared CASA to the family that took him in and gave him a home.

He thanked Thunder 102 and Formaggio Cheese for sponsoring his concert, was presented with a citation and special gift, posed for photos and then sang his heart out on stage in front of a full house that raised over $4000 for Sullivan Count CASA and the Sullivan County Cultural Foundation. 

Special guest Jason Casterlin opened for Wayne.

“I am so determined to be the very best spokesperson for this very best organization,” Wayne said. “It is my mission for the rest of my life, even when the music is gone, when Nashville has to kick me out of town, I will be doing this till the day I die.”

Click on this link to learn more about Sullivan County CASA, or call 845-807-0672.

To learn more about The Sullivan County Cultural Foundation click here.

To see more photos or to purchase prints from Wayne Wows Them at the Villa Roma, visit The Catskill Chronicle on Zenfolio.