I got some more news for you. A friend of mine is on the cover of the
Silsbee Bee.
By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
Joseph Dailey is not at all unlike most of the kids graduating from Silsbee High School this Saturday.
He admits he's a pretty good student when he applies himself but that his mind sometimes wanders off to a place where he would rather be writing songs than writing English essays.
He's laid back, not the best dressed, but well-liked and sometimes gets in trouble at school because his hair gets too long.
Joseph seems pretty typical as far as teenage boys are concerned. Considering his family history, and what might have been, Joseph is not at all typical.
For most of his life, Joseph has known there is a man out in the world who is his biological father. He refuses to claim this stranger as anything more than a DNA donor who happened into his mother's life nearly two decades ago.
"My mother was married to this man and she really tried to make it work," he said. "But drugs controlled his life, and she wouldn't let his drug addiction affect her children."
Joseph's parents separated when he was still tiny and the couple tried to make it work. But the drugs won out over family and Joseph, his sister and mother were left to make it on their own.
They've done just fine, he says.
"You get dealt a set of cards and you do what you can to make it work," Joseph said. "My family has played the cards it was dealt."
Joseph is a member of the Silsbee High School graduating class of 2009. He has been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin where he will major in theater studies with a minor in music composition.
His love of music is evident in most of the activities in which Joseph takes part. He writes his own music and lyrics and performs at benefit concerts, at nursing homes or at the Logon Cafe' in Beaumont.
He is a young man standing along in the center of the stage, strumming a guitar and blowing a harmonica for all to hear.
And his songs often tell the story of a boy who grew up from meager beginnings, learning tough lessons along the way.
All the while, though, he has maintained a positive approach to life, giving more than receiving, caring more for those than often he cared for himself.
"That's something my Mom taught me," he said. "You should take care of yourself, but it‘s your responsibility to take care of the people around you too."
His caring nature was rewarded with accolades from his SHS classmates as he was selected Best All-Around, Most Friendly, Most Popular, Class Favorite and one of 10 male students selected among the SHS Who's Who. He was also chosen Prom King.
"Those things mean more to me than anything," he said. "The Satsuma Awards are voted on by the senior class, so to know that people think that much of me really is important to me."
By all rights, Joseph most likely would have been another sad statistics where the child of a drug addict is concerned.
Joseph credits his mother as the family's savior.
"She wasn't going to let someone hurt her children," he said. "My biological father had a hardcore drug addiction and my Mom didn't want that for her kids."
After a separation period failed to bring Joseph's father around to the reality of what he was about to lose, his parents divorced.
Soon, it was Joseph and his little sister Anne-Marie and their mom working together to survive as a family.
"My Mom is the reason I am where I am today," said Joseph. "She taught me never to be a quitter, never to give up."
She taught that lesson by example. Eventually she met Richard Parker and they married. Now Joseph had a new dad and another little sister, Theresa.
"I have a biological father and I had a Dad," he said. "My step-dad hasn't always been able to come to everything I've been involved in, but he's always ‘been there' for me. He's my Dad."
Joseph's biological father reappeared briefly when he was in junior high. "When he abandoned us, I thought that was the last I'd ever see of him," Joseph said. "I came home one day when I was 14 and he was there. It really upset me. I forgave him and I was sorry that he missed out on a relationship with his kids. But at that point it was too late. The last I heard he was living in Alexandria (La., ), but that's all I know. That really all I want to know."
Against all odds, Joseph grew up as a motivated, thoughtful individual. But he beat even greater odds when he earned entry to the University of Texas as an incoming freshman this August.
Rarely do students earn acceptance to UT unless they are in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. But there are exceptions, and Joseph is one of them.
"They asked me to write essays as part of the entrance requirements and I wrote about my past and how it affected me," he said.
Joseph is particularly excited about the music of the Texas capital city and the opportunities he'll have to perform in Austin.
"I hear that it's not hard to find a place to play in Austin, it's just hard to get paid to play in Austin," he said.
And as close a relationship as his mother and Joseph have, he says that her only concern is that he reap the full benefit of the opportunity that awaits him in Austin.
"She said she just wants me to do what makes me happy," Joseph said. "I would be happy just to make her proud. That's what I plan to do."
