By Katie Vaughn | Photography by Hillary Schave
Leotha Stanley first noticed his future wife at a gospel choir rehearsal, but surprisingly it wasn’t Tamera’s voice that caught his attention.
“He saw the back of my head and my hands and said, ‘I’m going to marry her,’” Tamera says. Fortunately, a gospel conference reunited their church choirs the following week, and Tamera and Leotha found themselves sharing a pew. Then Tamera’s godson dropped a pacifier.
“We both bent down to pick it up, and the rest is history,” says Leotha, a renowned pianist and composer.
Leotha asked Tamera, a talented soloist, to help him teach a gospel class at UW-Whitewater, with him commuting from Madison and her from Milwaukee. Over the next few years, the pair got to know each other. They married in August 2008 with all four of Leotha’s adult children (from his first marriage) present.
After their honeymoon, Tamera moved to Madison and joined Leotha at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where he serves as the music director.
“I was supposed to be able to sit and relax,” she says. “I’m still waiting to do that. I was up and going and singing and working with the choir right away.”
And they’ve remained busy. Both regularly bring music to local schools and lead several choirs, including the MLK Community Choir. Tamera is also the family, staff and community engagement liaison for the Verona Area School District and Leotha recently began running Umoja magazine.
But faith, music and time together form the foundation of their relationship. Each morning, they start the day by praying together.
“What we’ve learned through our time is to stay connected,” Tamera says.
They’ve continued collaborating, too. Each holiday season, they lead the Mt. Zion Gospel Choir in performances with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and hold the Stanley Gospel Carols concert. And they’ve co-written several songs, which Leotha dreams of recording one day.
“We have half a dozen songs that we’ve written together,” he says. “The songs just came together, like we came together.”
What are three words that describe your spouse?
“Creative, spontaneous, loving.” – Tamera Stanley
“Beautiful, giving, Godly.” – Leotha Stanley
