The Life Story of Jennifer Hudson

The Life Story of Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson

ISBN 978-1-63784-843-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63784-844-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2025 by Jennifer Hudson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Hawes & Jenkins Publishing

16427 N Scottsdale Road Suite 410

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

www.hawesjenkins.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

About the Author

Chapter 1

I grew up with two brothers, and my mom was a single parent. My brothers were twins, but they did not look alike. My brother Greg was dark-skinned with curly hair; he resembled my granddaddy. Garland had bright skin with good straight hair. They were disabled. Greg could say a few words and stuttered when he talked. He liked to stomp with his feet and say curse words like shit. Garland would make sounds and smile all the time. Both of my brothers used to have seizures. My mom had seizures also.

It was so scary to me. We didn't have a phone. I used to run to my neighbors' houses to use the phone to call my grandma so they could check on us. Sometimes my mom and brothers had seizures at the same time. They would be shaking and foaming at the mouth. I would get some ice from the ice tray to put on their faces to cool them down. Eventually, they would stop shaking. A seizure could last at least thirty minutes, with their mouths moving and their whole bodies shaking. I would unbutton their shirts and put ice on their chests too. Sometimes the ice would be wrapped in a small towel and put on their foreheads, faces, and chests to cool them down. Sometimes they got too hot, and that would cause them to have a seizure.

I grew up in the county. We lived with my grandparents for a short time. My brothers and I went to the same school but rode different buses. They rode the short bus to school. As a child, I didn't understand why we couldn't ride the same bus. Early in the morning, I could hear my mom fussing at my brothers, and they would get whoopings with a switch or a belt. She would send them to school with marks on their backs and legs. She did this a lot, and one day my brothers were taken from her. They were living in a group home close to some of my kinfolk. No one would tell my mom where they were.

I remember a social worker coming to my grandmother's house before my brothers were removed from the home and asked if they could live with them. My granddaddy wanted to say yes, but my grandmother gave him that look. They ended up telling the social worker no because they had to work. No one in the family was willing to get my brothers, so they were taken to a group home. I remember one day going to the group home with my mom, and those people looked crazy. She ended up getting my brothers back. We were still living in the same neighborhood, but my mom had moved out of my grandmother's house. We were living around the corner in our own house. It was a two-bedroom house.

My brother Greg used to love to climb trees. He would climb all the way to the top, and my other brother Garland would sit at the bottom of the tree. I used to love to hang with my brothers. I would be outside with them in the trees, laughing and playing. My brother Greg sometimes would tell me to go in the house. He wanted to hang out with his brother without me because I was a girl. I was also younger than them. They were six years older than me.

We would play outside every day and then go to my grandparents' house and play. They lived two minutes away from us, and we would walk to their house. My grandparents cooked that good soul food every day. They always cooked a full breakfast and dinner. The breakfast would consist of homemade buttermilk biscuits with that thick syrup that came from a white can, along with bacon, eggs, grits, rice, and butter toast. Then sometimes my granddaddy would cook some homemade pancakes with butter on top, bacon, eggs, and rice. The pancakes were so big and fluffy that they just melted in your mouth. Before they had IHOP and Waffle House, that good breakfast came from your grandparents' house.

For dinner, we would have turnip greens or collard greens, corn bread, fried chicken, or fried fish, and a big pitcher of iced tea or some cold lemonade. Then my grandma made the best tea cakes. You could smell the cinnamon when she was cooking those teacakes. The tea cakes were so big and fluffy. They would just melt in my mouth. I used to love going to my grandparents' house, eating all that good food, watching cable television, and chilling with my other cousins when they came to visit.

My mom could cook good food also. She used to love to cook fried pork chops with homemade biscuits. I think turnip greens were her favorite. She would cook the root of the turnip in the greens with some sweet corn bread and fry some chicken. Some of my cousins would come over, and they loved to eat her food. She used to cook squash and pinto beans with ham hocks in it. Sometimes she would burn up some of her food, like cooking plain rice or grits and some of her fried liver. My brother Garland used to frown when he had to eat food when it was burned or too starchy. She would be cooking some of that food too fast, and that grease would pop everywhere.

My brothers had a different daddy than me. Neither father did anything for us growing up. My mom was always a single parent. She did the best she could. We lived in poverty. My brother received an SSI check, and she received a TANF check for me. That was her only source of income. My mom never had a job. She said it was because my brothers were disabled and all her time was spent on them. She would send us to school every day. She received food stamps also. She would stock up the refrigerator when she got the food stamps. The food would last most of the month. But when we got toward the end of the month, the food would be gone. Sometimes she would have food stamps left to go back to the grocery store and buy some more food.

My mom was not good with her resources. I can recall our gas being off in the wintertime. We were living across the street with a neighbor called Slim. One day, I called my granddaddy, and he came and got me and my brother. He told my mom she could stay, but we were not going to be there under those conditions. My daddy came over and snapped at her too. He wanted to know if she was sleeping with Slim and what the hell was really going on.

My grandparents played a major role in my life. There was a lot of stuff we lacked in our house, but my grandparents would be there for us. We would be at my grandparents' house chilling with them on the weekends. My mom used to love to go to the club when she was young. She used to be behind on the rent. She felt like she didn't have to pay the total amount on the rent or the bills because she wanted to have enough money left to buy her beer. She didn't smoke weed or anything, but she loved her Miller beer, and she would drink liquor sometimes.

I remember one time our water got cut off. We had a water leak, and the bill was like one thousand dollars. She couldn't afford to pay that amount, so they turned our water off. My granddaddy used to bring us water every week so we could flush the toilet and take a bath. My mom would put a bucket outside when it rained to catch the water. She would always let the windows up to get some fresh air and air the house out. Sometimes it would rain a lot, and she would fill those buckets up. She would use that water to keep the house clean and would take baths with that water.

On the weekends, my grandmother would pick us up so we could take a real bath and wash clothes. I got teased when I was in the fifth grade. Some of the students said I stank and smelled like pee. I felt embarrassed and didn't like school that year. I started missing days from school. I missed a lot of days from school, and I had to go to summer school to pass to the next grade. I got into a fight with Tiffany Simmons on the bus on the way to summer school. After that, I didn't finish summer school, so I had to repeat fifth grade.

My mom didn't know I was skipping school. I would leave the house and hide behind a car or somebody's house and watch the bus picking up the students. Then a few minutes later, I would go back home. My mom did not have a car, so I would just be at home. One time, I didn't go to school because my shoes had a hole in them. My granddaddy came over to our house to talk to my mom and saw me. He asked me why I was at home, and I told him. He took me to Payless and bought me a pair of LA Gear shoes. They were pink with pink-and-white shoestrings. They were popular shoes back in the day. My granddaddy spent his last twenty dollars on my shoes. I told him, Thanks.

He told me, Don't you ever do that again. Always let me know if you need something. You need to be at school getting your education.

I always had a special relationship with my granddaddy. My granddaddy treated me like I was his child. He was always nice to me. He always picked me and my brother up and took us to their house. He would buy us snacks out of the store, cook our favorite foods, and spend time with us. When my granddaddy got mad at my grandma, he would come to our house and fuss about the situation. He would be cursing and acting a fool. I was probably eight years old at that time. I used to listen to him and feel bad for him. My granddaddy was a good man and did everything to please my grandma. Sometimes she would never be satisfied with what he did. Sometimes he would talk to my mom about it, but not all the time. He loved talking to me about it. I never understood why because I was a child.

My mom used to send me to the grocery store to make groceries with her food stamps and pay her utility bills at Wee-land. She made me be responsible at a young age. I could count money well. She taught me well. She also let me watch educational shows on television all the time. I stayed in front of the television watching different educational shows like Reading Rainbow.

Out of my siblings, I was the only one who came out normal. I think my mom was still drinking beer when she was pregnant with my brothers. I don't know if she knew she was pregnant or not. I had to help out a lot when I was young. I used to cross the highway to get to the store. It was dangerous because those cars were coming fast.

My grandma saw me crossing the street, and she fussed at my mama. My mama got mad at her. She still had me going to the store, and sometimes I had to take Garland to the store. Garland used to take off running and scare me to death. He ran so fast and wouldn't stop. He could have gotten run over by a car.

I first got my heart broken when my brother Greg died. I was six years old when he died. He had a bad seizure in the ambulance. He was shaking so hard. I watched him shake to death. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. My mom didn't eat for two weeks. She went into a state of depression.

At the funeral, I was sitting in my auntie Lean's lap. They rolled my brother Garland into a wheelchair. His arm was broken from living with those crazy people in that group home. I remember being interviewed by a news crew standing outside in my grandmother's yard. I felt so sad. I was young, but I knew life would never be the same without my brother Greg. Garland didn't say any more words when his brother died. I knew he was going to miss his brother; plus, they were twins, so that made it even worse. My uncle Moonie took it hard also. He was mad as hell after the funeral. It was a sad occasion. Greg was twelve years old when he died.

I used to hang out with one girl in the county named Nicole Stutts. Nicole looked scary when I first met her. She stood like a tree, with bright skin and a mean look on her face. One day, she came to my grandmother looking for me. She lived right across the street from my grandmother. I came outside looking up at her like, What do you want with me? I went to her house to see what she wanted. She just wanted to chill. She had younger siblings and didn't appear to have any friends at that time. It took a while for me to get used to her, but eventually, I did. We became good friends.

She would trip me out talking shit and acting a fool. She loved to dance. The only thing shaking on her body was her hair. Then when I passed to fifth grade, we moved to a small neighborhood called Shellrock.

First, we lived in a duplex across the street. It was a one-bedroom duplex. My kinfolk used to come and visit us. We always enjoyed the company. I remember one time my mom hid our Christmas gifts in the closet. My cousins were over there, and we were playing different games and with toys. We had so much fun. When they left, my mom opened up the closet door and discovered they had opened our gifts, and she was mad as hell. It turned out that's why we were having so much fun. My mom called my auntie Lean and acted a fool.

We enjoyed our next-door neighbors, Mrs. Louise and Slim. They liked to play blues, and Slim played the guitar. They were cool people to hang around. I used to hang out with a girl named Yolanda. We started hanging out every day. Her parents were cool.

But one day, keeping it real went wrong. Yolanda called my mama a bitch. My mama slapped the girl so hard she fell into the ditch. Then the girl tried to act like another girl called her a bitch. So my mama went across the street to ask Keisha's grandmother, Mrs. Rushing. Mrs. Rushing confronted Keisha, and Keisha said she didn't say that. My mom knew Yolanda had lied. After that, I stopped going to her house because it was the biggest mess. Her parents and sister were mad as hell. They came to our duplex and were talking shit to my mom, and my mom was talking shit back.

Then when she moved from Shellrock, she would still come to visit Mrs. Louise. Yolanda didn't have any friends, so she still wanted me to come spend the night with her at her new house. I went to her house sometimes.

Eventually, we moved across the street into a brown shotgun house. My mama preferred a house versus living in an apartment. It took me a while to come outside when we moved across the street. I would peep out the window and look at the kids playing outside. One day, my next-door neighbor came knocking on the door. It was Muf and her sister Tif. I came to the door, looking at them like, What do they want? I went outside and went next door to their house. We started talking, and I was cursing. They looked at each other and started laughing. I started hanging out with them every day. We became close friends over the years. We had a lot in common. Muf had a big family, a bunch of siblings and cousins. There was never a dull moment at her house.

Chapter 2

I loved going to John Hopkins. The teachers were nice, and the school was nice and big. The food was good, and I used to get good grades at that school. One of my fourth-grade teachers was Ms. Hart. She was a white lady. She was really nice to me.

I can remember May Day. Back then, you could get tickets for a dollar. My mom gave me five or ten dollars for May Day. May Day was when the kids were outside all day eating food, and snacks, playing games, and other fun things. You had to give tickets for the different things you wanted. I was eating so much food and just having fun. I loved the atmosphere at that school. I was cool with kids from Presidential Hills.

Our school district changed. Instead of going to John Hopkins Elementary School, we transitioned to Bradley Elementary School. The atmosphere was totally different. Those kids were ghetto at Bradley. They came from the projects. We did not like Bradley Elementary School. We had to deal with bullies. Those kids were rough, and we were not used to that type of behavior. I went to Bradley for fifth and sixth grade. My entire fifth-grade year was a hot mess. I couldn't stand half of my class. They were