feed

By Joan Warner

Like David Seidler said in his Oscar acceptance speech for The King’s Speech - “We have a voice. We have been heard”- Stuttering Foundation friend, patron, and unofficial Public Library Ambassador Leon ‘Jigger’ Sirois has been espousing that sentiment for years. Tirelessly working with his late-in-life found fluency on behalf of the Stuttering Foundation and all people who stutter, he too says we can be heard.

"We have a voice. We have been heard."
David Seidler, while accepting his Oscar for The King's Speech

By Jean Gruss

Editor’s Note: Jean Gruss, the author of this article, is the grandson of Stuttering Foundation founder Malcolm Fraser and Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue.

For decades, Lionel Logue’s name was an obscure footnote in biographies of British King George VI.

But thanks to his grandson and a blockbuster movie, he’s quickly become the most famous speech therapist in history.

Reviewed by John M. Williams

I was very slow to see the movie The King’s Speech. I had wanted to see it for many months after I read my first review in late 2010. I am overjoyed with having seen it. It is a movie I will watch many times. I enjoyed it that much.

As I watched the movie, I drew many parallels between the sometimes despicable ways speech therapists and others treated the future King and me.

Behind the scenes of some of our King's Speech media exposure

In the final week of March 2009, the public at large may have been surprised to learn that actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life when an article from the newswire circulated around the world about how the actress is grateful to her teacher for encouraging her to act in a school play at age twelve despite her stuttering. Also, Blunt’s March 25 appearance on the Ellen show in which she spent the first six minutes of the interview discussing her childhood stuttering received some coverage as well.

While Bill Withers has long been on the SFA list of “Famous People Who Stutter,” many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away March 30, 2020.

The April/May 2006 issue of the magazine Waxpoetics sheds some light on the brilliant career of the famed singer and songwriter.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

While Jack Paar is among the most prominent of the entertainers on the Stuttering Foundation’s list of Famous People Who Stutter, he deserves special recognition as he was among the first to openly address his stuttering in public. As host of “The Tonight Show” from 1957-1962, he spoke of his difficulties as a stuttering child and teenager, giving hope to young people.

B.B. King

B.B. King and John Lee Hooker have much in common. Born in Mississippi only a few years apart, both are considered among the best blues guitarists of all-time. Both King and Hooker have been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, what the public may not know is that they have another thing in common: stuttering.