Cory Craig finds new life as a music instructor

Periodically, 318 Forum’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person — well-known, successful and/or influential — and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

The abuse.

“My 3-year-old brother ran up the stairs. My dad chased him. Then I heard beatings and beatings. It was like a drum. It just kept going. My brother was screaming and crying. Eventually, the screaming and crying stopped, but the beating didn’t. I got scared and ran upstairs. My dad had cornered my brother in a closet and was just whaling away. I started screaming, ‘Dad, stop. Stop!’ He comes up to me, grabs me by the neck and pulls me up the stairs. He said, ‘You want me to do this to you?’ I did everything I could to say, ‘No.’ He threw me down the stairs.”

The neglect. “(My parents) weren’t really good at managing their money and making sure we had food, so a lot of our meals were cereal or noodles. Me and my older sister would cook it. We always had a good meal once a month when the food stamps came in. We had food for a couple of days. But the rest of the month, we had to fend for ourselves.”

The bullying. “We were constantly pushed down. (Kids) would play stupid games where they would spit on their hands, and they would chase us to tag us. They would play another game where they would tag us and then quickly tag someone else and tell them, ‘You have a disease now.’ I hated school.”

For her first 10 years on earth, she never had a chance.

“Kids like me don’t turn out OK. Statistically, I should be homeless, a prostitute or incarcerated.”

But she is none of those. She has a degree in K-12 instrumental music education.

She was named Teacher of the Year at her first school. She’s been nominated for four straight years for the Grammy Music Educator of the Year award.

“When I was in kindergarten or first grade, I had one friend who stood up for me. She said, ‘There are a lot of storms in life, but my momma says you gotta look for the rainbows and it’s going to be OK.’ That stuck with me.”

Cory Craig told me her story during lunch at a place she chose, Copeland’s of New Orleans. Cory enjoyed chicken alfredo with bowtie pasta, while I took care of a bowl of Cajun gumbo and an Italian crab salad. A couple of weeks after our visit, Cory left Benton Intermediate School after four years to become band director at North DeSoto Middle School.

Cory admitted that the details of her younger life were hard to swallow even over a good meal.

The 34-year-old grew up in California with 15 — that’s right, 15 — biological and adoptive siblings. The abuse at the hands of her biological parents finally ended on Nov. 30, 2000.

That’s when Child Protective Services showed up unannounced.

“They saw that my two younger siblings and I were malnourished. I was 80 pounds.” Cory added that the floor was littered with dirty diapers, clothes and roaches.

Cory spent the next five days in a group home, where she enjoyed the comforts we take for granted.

“I had my own room. I had a clean shower for the first time in a long time. I had clean clothes. I had clean bedding. I got to brush my teeth. (All) my teeth had cavities … in them. I hadn’t brushed my teeth in a long time.”

Three years, one group home and two foster homes later, Cory, a sister and three brothers were adopted.

“In my biological home, I was a failing student and had all kinds of issues. When I finally got to be in a loving, caring environment and got a lot of help — I skipped a lot of school — I finally became a ‘C’ student. I had to learn so many things I didn’t know before.”

That was an excellent start to a new life. But in seventh grade, the sound of music changed Cory forever.

“I was placed in the band class. I picked art, but there wasn’t any room. My (adoptive) mom said, ‘You’re going to play the saxophone like Kenny G.’ I brought home a baritone saxophone. It’s like the Big Bertha of saxophones. It was as big as I was because I was super skinny and tiny, but tall and lanky. I took it home every day and practiced.”

Finally, after years of being silenced, Cory could express herself.

“It was the first time I felt like I had a voice and that I could be good at something.”

That’s not all music did for Cory. “It was the first time I really had friends. Being in band class gave me hope I didn’t have before. I knew in seventh grade that I had to be a band director because of how much joy it brought to my life in such a weird, crazy time.”

Cory eventually found her way south, following a “boy” she would marry — though the marriage ended in divorce. Cory graduated from Louisiana Tech and soon realized that her dream had come true. Not only was she band director for four years at Shreveport’s Herndon Magnet School, but she taught just about every musical instrument. In the process, Cory showed she was different from the rest.

“What a lot of teachers do when they’re overwhelmed and overloaded is they just focus on one thing they love. Everything else is, ‘We will do what we can.’ I didn’t feel comfortable with that. What if I had the next Elton John on piano, or what if I had the next Jimi Hendrix on guitar? So, I taught all of them to the core. Everybody was going to perform. Everybody was going to learn how to read music and be the best they possibly can be because that’s what they deserved.”

Cory had a daughter, and after teaching at Ruston Junior High School for two years, she settled in at Benton Intermediate. Her students have come and gone through the years, but Cory’s devotion to their well-being — based in large part on what she went through growing up — has remained.

“Throughout my teaching career, I’ve always tried to find those students who are struggling, but I know are in poverty, so I can help in any way. Whether it’s providing gas money so their parents can come to concerts, or if they’re having a hard time keeping things clean, I will go over and help clean. Or if their power goes out, they’re coming to my house.”

Assuming Cory had to hurry off and teach the next Taylor Swift or Luke Combs, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about her life story that can be helpful to others?

“We’re the culmination of the kindness shown to us. For some of us, very little kindness has been shown, and for some of us, a lot of kindness has been shown. I want to encourage people to be that kindness. Whether it’s a stranger, an orphan, a neighbor or a coworker, find ways to impact each other’s lives in their own sphere. That’s going to change a lot, like it did in my life. Even though I was shown very little kindness in the beginning, oh, my goodness. (Later), we had a lot of kindness shown to us, and a lot of work done in our hearts and lives that changed the whole trajectory for all of us.”

Kindness and the sweet sound of music.