BOCA RATON, FL -- Casey and Timolin Cole were just three and a half years old when their father Nat King Cole died of lung cancer. He was in his forties. But their faint memories of him live on in their hearts. Casey says, "Being in the house and when he would walk into the house he would carry both of us up the stairs in the palm of his hands, and he would like be singing a song".
His songs are truly unforgettable. Songs like "When I Fall In Love" and "Mona Lisa". Timolin says her father was and is admired. "He was a quiet leader we called him a gentle giant not considered an activist he was just very quiet and again his music spoke to so many and did so much during a time when there were so many problems".
Because the twins want their father's music to live on, they started the Nat King Cole Generation Hope Foundation to benefit music education in schools. "Instruments, field trips, music seminars, mentoring programs, state of the art technology, production music sheets that schools don't even have enough money to buy music sheets, try to bring choruses back", Timolin says. The focus would be on public middle and high schools in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. It would provide financial support to the schools that need it the most.
"I think it would be nice if students, if children could know it's such an important part of our everyday life without music what would our world be without music. He was a true icon he broke through so many racial barriers in the world where there was so much strife and turbulence and here was this man who was able to have his own television show".
The Nat King Cole Generation Hope Gala is Saturday November 29th at The Forge in Miami Beach.
www.natkingcolefoundation.org
