William Staton Jr.

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William Staton rides his bicycle five days a week and for the past four months, Staton has started his commute about 90 minutes

On the streets of Harlem, N.Y., he earned the name "Angel" because he was always lending a hand where it was needed.

 


And that's something that William Staton Jr. has been doing ever since.

Born in Wilson, Staton, 51, moved to Harlem when he was 3 years old with his mother and sisters. His early life was hampered by a battle with Lupus. He spent two years in the hospital and went through five surgeries before he was 7 years old. His doctors told him he would never lead a normal active life.

"Shoot, they were wrong," Staton said recently with a wry grin.

In his youth, Staton went on to play hard like any other kid, excelling in basketball. He played two years at a New Hampshire college and then played several years with a semi-pro team in the late 1970s. As a teenager, he also worked as a bicycle messenger in New York City.

 
On occasion Staton said the pain from the Lupus sneaks back up on him, but he's had no real trouble in about 10 years.

After earning an associate's degree in business management, Staton returned to New York to help out his family. He worked several jobs to support his mother and siblings.

While in New York he got married and started a family. They moved to Atlanta and lived for seven years. After a divorce, and news that his mother was sick, Staton returned to Wilson. He left behind a 13-year-old daughter, Maya Zhane, who lives with her mother.

Staton moved here in December to help take care of his mother, Lillian Staton, who is battling Alzheimer's. What money he had, including savings and from the sale of his two cars, was quickly spent taking care of his mother's needs.

"Once I went through my savings I went down to DSS to find a job and was determined to take the first one I could find," Staton said. "It turned out that the first one that came up was at Sams in Rocky Mount."

Even though the job was in another city and he had no car, Staton took the job because he wanted and needed to work.

In order to get to and from his new job, Staton rides his bicycle. Five days a week and for the past four months, Staton starts his commute about 90 minutes before he's scheduled to begin his shift. Some days he says the ride is easy, and on other days it can be very difficult, especially those daily commutes during the winter.

"Oh it's super cold, man. There's some days I just wanted to lay down and die," Staton said. But, like all the other obstacles in his life, he'd push on to overcome a little cold.

"This is someone who really wanted to work and be employed," said Ron Hunt of the Wilson County Department of Social Services.

Hunt said Staton's determination to bicycle back and forth 32 miles each day he works "speaks to Mr. Staton's desire to achieve."

The position at Sams isn't his only job. Staton also does maintenance work at a Wilson apartment complex. He's hoping the money he makes from his second job will help him buy a car.

In addition to working the two jobs and speaking to various groups about overcoming the odds for DSS, Staton is trying to start his own business. While in Atlanta, Staton laid floors and carpet for a living. He wants to restart that business here in Wilson and has begun to hang fliers up across town.

He also has a dream of starting a community center in Wilson. As a child in Harlem, he said he benefited from the role models who offered him stern guidance at community centers around his neighborhood. That guidance kept him from running with street gangs and getting into too much trouble. Now it's something he wants to give back to the youth of Wilson.

The program, for which he's already drawn up a business plan, would be called "Each One, Teach One."

"There's a lot of kids out there who can use some guidance, and I just want to return what I was given as a kid," Staton said.

He's no stranger to working in community centers. Staton has coached basketball teams in various centers in New York, Atlanta and about 20 years ago in Rocky Mount. Several of those teams have competed in national tournaments and the Rocky Mount team won a national tournament in 1988.

"My whole life has been about helping folks, doing what I can, when I can," Staton said. "I've got all this knowledge and all this love, and I've got to get it out and give it to people."







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