June 13, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Sue Thomas' story became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye. She's here to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't touch!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first
deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip
reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team with the FBI.
(00:34):
The nineteen ninety Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night,
which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas
FBI e Ye. The continuing story of her life is
chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories
about living with multiple sclerosis.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have remembered that
TV's show called FBI, And as I traveled around the
country speaking, I find that I keep getting asked three
most popular questions. Question number one, are you the real
(01:16):
sir Thomas? Question number two, how long did you work
for the FBI? Only for three and a half years,
just long enough to get a TV show out of it?
And question number three did you really run down the
(01:37):
street catching the bad guys? Do I look like I
ran down the street catching the bag. Guys. It's put
an awful lot of fun. You know, if you look
back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood,
(01:59):
the drama, the action, the intensity, the loss. And yet
when it came down to actually telling the real story
of Sir Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going
(02:21):
to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That
journey started out very early in my life, at the
age of eighteen months went very suddenly in the evening
I went profoundly deaf. There was never a cause, non,
(02:43):
I wasn't safe. I just had my cure in one moment,
and the next moment I was walking the path of Sitans.
Years was spent with the speech therapist in front of
a mirror with my hand on her throat, feeling the
vibes and making those same vibes. At the same time,
(03:08):
I would be looking in the mirror watching her form
her lips that make the word, and then for me
the try to form my lips the same way. After
years of speech therapy, became voice lesson no, not for
a professional thing, but only to get my voice the
(03:30):
fluctuate to go up and down and up and down,
and after years the voice came to ramatic reading only
for the articulation and annunciation of wordens. So many many
years has gone into this voice, and yet I know
I still talk funny, and people say, oh, no, you don't,
(03:55):
but I do. Well, how do you know them? Well?
I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel,
any place at any time, and somebody will always come
up to me and say, where are you from. You
really have an accent. It's just a little bit different,
(04:17):
and I'm aware of that. I went to public school.
Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be
able to read a lips of best that I couldn't.
I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to
follow what the class was doing. And I remember that
(04:38):
day and as far as watching the students stand by
their death and I finally figured it out. They were
introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day,
and I remember getting up and standing beside my desk
and very proudly looking out at my class maison singing
(05:00):
something like and what that The entire class they erupted
and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard that
day I turned around to try to figure why everybody
was laughing, and when I couldn't figure it out, I
(05:22):
just sat down. But I came to realize that every
time I was to open my mouth to speak, the
entire class would erupt and laughed him. And I got
to the point or I went open my mouth. For
twelve years, I sat in the silence, and never once
(05:47):
that I opened my mouth. And that's school the finy
moment of having my teacher come up to me one
day at my death, and she looked off beside that
day and she reached down and took my hands in
hers and she let me out of the classroom. And
(06:09):
that day is seemed blooked with an awful on one.
And that was the day I entered another class. I
entered what was known as the dummy class. And now
all these kids had more ammunition to work with. I
just didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There
(06:33):
was three things in my life as a child that
saved me from total despair. One my parents went to
church on Sundays and they tried to instill in me
that there was a God that did not make any mistakes.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas. Yes,
and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been.
I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And
I know we can all conjure up what that must
have been like for her, as many of us may
have been those kids laughing at her, or at least
hurting for her and not standing up for her. And
then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes.
(07:19):
When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story a
unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the our American Stories family. If you
(07:39):
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
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Go to our American Stories dot Com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And
(08:09):
we continue with our American Stories. In the story of
Sue Thomas.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
They tried to tell me about his son named Jesus,
and that if I went to hold on to his
hand and allow him to lead me and guide me,
that there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do, or
anything that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song
(08:42):
to get that. I had a song. No, I have
no recollection of music, but I had a mother that
loved music, and she wanted to pass that love on
her or her daughter whether she could hear her on.
(09:02):
And as a little kid, she would placed me on
her lap as she sat in the rock and show,
rocking back and forth, singing all of her favorite songs.
With my head on her shoulder. As she sang, I
could feel the vibrations, and if I really liked the
song particularly well, my hand was sort of creep up
(09:25):
and lay gently on her throat. But I could get
all the vibes that I possibly couldn't. It must have
been around Christmas time, because one of the first songs
that my mom every time was Silent Night, and I
loved that fun Now as a little kid, it wasn't
(09:50):
the worries, the words had no meaning. Rather, it was
the rhythm and the flow of the broad void tremendous peace.
And I can remember after a long, lastly day of school,
going home on the school bus, looking out the window
(10:11):
with my nose all pressed up against the glass so
nobody's seeing the tears flow down my chain, way down Dean,
I was singing sight at night, and I'd be okay.
The only thing I ever wanted as a kid was
(10:37):
a friend. Let's face them, who wants to be a
friend to a dummy? Who wants to be a friend
to somebody that talks from him? And I never knew
what the word friendship man, at least not until I
(10:58):
got to high school. And by the time I went
to high school, I met up with those crimes that
was totally disrespectful, outright rebellion in the alcohol, in the
drug into everything. You know, with my means of escape,
(11:18):
at least trying to escape the world is silence. God
hand was upon me where he brought in a teacher
in my junior year that believed in me and began
to work with me one on one. It was through
(11:40):
her life. I went to college, and even though I
got to college, it took me eight years to leave
the place. Eight years past I thought the war couldn't
wait to give me a job, but I found out
the work could wait forever. There wasn't one person that
(12:03):
was wanting to give me a job simply because I
couldn't use the tumbele phone, or they thought that I
would misunderstand what was being sudden. And I went back
to the same hearing in speech center that taught me
to speak, pounded on their door and asking for a job.
(12:24):
They fell sorry for me, WHI they hired me even
when they didn't have a job. I became like a
go for a jack of all trade, doing whatever they
wanted me to do. And I remember some days taking
paper clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips
(12:44):
in another box, and I'm putting them in the closet.
I was only there for a few short months. You
say it was defended the hearing in speech center, who
in turn had a fend the lived in Washington, d C.
Who in turn had to defend the work for the
(13:05):
Department of State, who in turn had to defend the
work for the FBI. Are you following this so a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
from Washington, d C. To Youngstown, Ohio. I get when
that the FBI is looking for deaf people. And if
(13:28):
you don't think that, I panicked. I thought to myself,
what did we do? I talk them a long time
to calm me down, that dame. Basically they said, you
didn't do anything. They just want to know if you
want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was
(13:48):
finally going to hore me for who I was scrats,
I'm going to Washington, d C. That's awesome. But the
more I realized that, the more I knew I was
to be with the other BI, it just doesn't get
any better. So off I go to Washington, d sane
and the first week is like a dream come true.
(14:11):
They took me around, they introduced me to all the
special agents, and after all the introductions was over, they
took me downstairs to the firing range where all the
agents practiced their target shooting. That was the very first mistake.
The second mistake is when they handed to me a
Thompson forty five sub machine gun. I shot up their
(14:35):
entire shitting that day without even trying. It's a long
time before they let me go back downstairs. And then
I started my training to become what was known as
a fingerprint examiner for the FBI. Within the first five minutes,
I realized they had made the greatest mistake of my life. Someday,
(15:00):
when you don't have anything else to do, take a
look at any one of your fingers really really close.
All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job to
count every single one of those lines on that finger
eight hours the day, five days the winter. And I
(15:22):
can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've
seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in.
She's all up sunned. She tells me, I have to
get to the front office right away. There's only two
reasons the person goes to the front office of the FBI,
(15:45):
either to be terminated from their job or to be
in curiated by the FBI agents. I get to the
front office, I walk in and they tell me to
sit down. Day the question started and they went something
like this, Mss Thomas, and we understand that you readlips
(16:12):
to communicate, and you do a very good job. But
there's only one thing you want to know, just one thing.
Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV? That's all
(16:35):
you guys want to know. It's not a federal crime
to watch TV. I can pass and watch TV. Well,
is it difficult for miss Thomas? Do you get anything
out of him? Yeah? I do, I mean no, I don't.
(17:03):
I mean, I don't know. Do you know what I mean?
You're not the cameras on the person, and I can
see their lips, I can read them, but so many
times the camera's not on the person that I can't
see anything. So I don't know when anything's brings done.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice
she owns it now you can hear it. But as
a young person, well every time she opened her mouth,
kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she
sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI,
well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense
of humor. What a life story. When we come back
(17:45):
more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American
story and we continue with our American stories and the
(18:11):
story of Sue Thomas. Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, how about movies, mus Thomas, to go to movies,
is it any beoutterpier? Oh? Yes, I go to movies
and it's a lot better. It really is, you know,
it's the lips. They're a lot bigger. On and on
went the questions, and I came to realize that the
(18:39):
FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a
case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when
the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all
this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't
hear it. They wanted to know if I was sit
(19:02):
and watched the film and write any warriors down that
I could. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on,
I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on,
I read lips for the FBI, and they sum up
my job. I followed the bad guys around and I
(19:23):
read the lips. Then I went and told the good
guys what the bad guys were saying, and they even
paid me to do it too. And overnight, like the
snap of a finger, I finally made it in the
world of sound good job, good selling, somewhat of a
(19:46):
novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to
the Congressional and started US Party, And for three and
a half years I lived in the fast lane of Washington, DC,
celebrating my sisters. I'm thirty five years of age, when
(20:08):
I'm at the prime of the FBI. For thirty five years,
I have hated every step step that I turn. When
I was young, my parents tried to instill me that
(20:32):
God never made a mistake, and in my youth I
believed them and I held them. But supposedly, with each
passing year of getting older and supposedly wiser, I began
(20:54):
to doubt them. But by the time I'm with the FBI,
I totally doubted God, and I wanted to confine him
once and for all. I wanted him to confess that, yes, indeed,
(21:19):
he had made a mistake. So I resigned from the
behind to go to Columbia International Seminary CiU in South Carolina.
(21:40):
Not to go there to become a preacher, and not
to go there to become a missionary, but with only
one objective to confine God face to face, to ask
him why he made a mistake. The mistake with him minor,
(22:05):
it was major. I mean, after anybody that would know
of the mistake would have consideration of why I had
to do this. Here wasn't enough that He created in
me a heart that loves people. I love people, and
(22:27):
that came by God's creation that he put within me.
But it's compounded by the issue that even though he
created that love and I want to be with people,
he allowed the silence to overtake me, that it was
physically impossible to be with people. That my friends, is
(22:52):
a mistake as a whopper. He don't give somebody something
and then we move it in a tangible way where
they can't have it. Helen Killers started best when she
started Blindness separates the person from things and the objects.
(23:13):
Depthness separates the person from people. She'd write, Oh yeah,
I'm a good lip reader. In my prime. I can
be in a high wise building in New York City
with a pair of field glasses, looking across the street
and another high wise building and telling your word for
(23:36):
word what was being said. I'm good or I was
I'm so good. I can even do two people, and
that's like watching tennis. Somebody will talk, they'll stop, they'll talk,
they'll stop, they'll talk. There I can get it. But
(23:57):
you add a third person and a fourth person, I
start deteriorating. I cannot function in a groom at my
heart want is so desperately, so badly. I love the party.
(24:21):
I love to be with people, but I can't. I can't.
I got the seminary. God was waiting. You see him.
He didn't just give me one or two friends and
(24:44):
seminary that I could relate to. He had twenty five
friends waiting for me twenty five. I can't be with
three people long, twenty five and yet every day we
got to class together. We were sharing mules together, we
(25:08):
were studying, we were praying, we were saying, we were
always together. And these people saw their outward shawl of supers,
the party animal, happy girl liking the line because what
(25:29):
they didn't know is that when I left them missed
and I went back to my apartment, I totally destroyed
everything that I can get my hands on. The bitterness
and resentment started doing the first year of first grade.
(25:54):
That puts me in six years old them from the
age of six to the age of thirty five. That
baggage was grown with each passing on that I was
a broken person. I was a reasonful person. I despised,
(26:20):
there wasn't a shred of happiness within. And now I'm
with twenty five new friends, and what.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
A story, folks, in my goodness, With each passing year
As I got older, I began to doubt that God
doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five, I wanted to confront
God once and for all and about one thing, that yes,
he did make a mistake, and my goodness, to hear
her talk about her bitterness. The bitterness and resentment had
(26:52):
started in the first year of first grade, at the
age of six, right to the age of thirty five,
that baggage was growing with each moment. There wasn't a
shred of happiness in me. When we come back more
of this remarkable confession, this beautiful confession here on our
(27:13):
American stories, and we continue here with our American stories
(27:40):
and with Sue Thomas's story. And now here's the final part.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So many times I cried out the God, please give
me my hearing, Please just let me Sue. And it
was always the same answer, the Great So I turned
from goden I more or less gave up on him.
(28:11):
I went to the one friend in seminary and I
told her a lie. I told her that I had
determined disease, that I was dying, because in my warped mind,
I thought of she believed me. She would want to
spend as much time with me one on one, and
(28:34):
that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize the
split second that I told that lie that it would
last for all seven months. And I had no idea
that the first person I told that lie too, that
would have fanned out for those twenty five people. And
(28:54):
surely I had no idea that that lie would totally
sinsume me and destroy them seven longman's paths. And I
was wasting away, and there came a home that I
(29:17):
could not take it any longer. And I went to
that same fing and I then please call my advisor
in school, tell them that I needed to see him
as soon as possible. Tell them to have another faculty
remember with him. It's origin. And I met with those
(29:39):
two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed my sin.
I knew that I would have to go to those
twenty five different people and to tell them the truth,
and I was prepared to do that. I wanted to
do it. But what I didn't know is that I
(30:02):
would have to stand before the entire academic committee of
that school. The night before I wished to meet that
committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life
the shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I
(30:26):
got my suitcase out and I began to pack to
run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing,
my Bible fell on the floor, and when I looked down,
I sort of chuckled and I shook my head because
(30:49):
I could not believe the pages that were staring back
to me. I put the Bible on the bed and
I went down on the floor, based down, and I
cried out for God, for mercy, for forgiveness. That I
(31:17):
told him that the thirty five years I went to church,
I saddened the peer. I sang that Kim I talked
to talk and told people I was this Christian? How
dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire
(31:42):
academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my
speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that
had a hard time understanding me. The one thing that
(32:03):
I remember more than anything and on that day of
my confession, but that's all, was one lone man stutting
in a chair, his head within his hands, and as
(32:25):
he heard me speak, he shook his head back and
forth him and as I watched him the tears flown.
That man was doctor Robinson mccorcombe, and the days before
(32:53):
that meeting, the emotions ran so high. While I say
to him, what can I say? And that day bunt
your mind and want you know it? They sat me
right next to him at a dinner table. He looked
(33:17):
at me and the first word that he spoke was Sue,
I'm so proud of you. I looked at him, and
the tears began to flow, and I choked them and
(33:41):
I took my napkin and I placed them on the
table and I said, you have to excuse me, and
I walked out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God,
he doesn't remember, he can't remember. He done. He was
part of me. So I regained my composure and I
(34:06):
went back and I was able to finish to me
all at that time. Then doctor merk qualking, I need
to see you as soon as possible, or you meet man,
he suggested tomorrow morning. I looked at him and I said,
(34:29):
tod d kick anybody out. The dread fist has anybody
And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's
that I don't think so, but I'm not sure and
(34:50):
then there was the great silence, and he said, did
we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have,
and maybe you should have, but you didn't. And then
(35:16):
you taught me of the love and the forgiveness of
Jesus Christ. And you just didn't stop with the love.
You walked me through the killing process. And then you
sent me. I don't know where I would have been
(35:43):
had you kicked me out. And yet, Big God, it
was like the snap of a finger. All I had
to do what the TV shown calls comes here in
(36:03):
the United States. Sober four million people have watched it today.
That show is being seen in sixty five nations around
the world, Germany, South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, second point sixty
(36:27):
five nations. And the people writing me thinking, they're writing
this celebrity and I have the opportunity the sheriff's celebrity. Now,
that's greatest sinner saved by grace.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yes, that is the real story of Sir Thomas at
the I.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That is the truth, the hold truth, and nothing but
the truth. Soap my God.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And does anyone doubt her? No, what a thing, what
a story, what a lie, what a lie to tell?
But she was just hurting, and that's why she told it.
He was just looking for attention. And what a cry
for help that was, lying about a terminal disease and
(37:31):
then having to go before your peers and then an
academic committee and well face the pain. And she was
going to run away, and that Bible fell out of
the book and she threw herself on the threshing floor
and she called out for forgiveness and grace and she
got both. And we don't shy away from these things.
(37:52):
And this show is open to believers, non believers. Your stories,
all of them, we want to hear. And my Goodness
is maybe one of the most profoundly told. Great job,
as always by Gregg Hangler. A great and beautiful God's story.
Sue Thomas's story here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first
deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip
reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team with the FBI.
(00:34):
The nineteen ninety Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night,
which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas
FBI e Ye. The continuing story of her life is
chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories
about living with multiple sclerosis.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have remembered that
TV's show called FBI, And as I traveled around the
country speaking, I find that I keep getting asked three
most popular questions. Question number one, are you the real
(01:16):
sir Thomas? Question number two, how long did you work
for the FBI? Only for three and a half years,
just long enough to get a TV show out of it?
And question number three did you really run down the
(01:37):
street catching the bad guys? Do I look like I
ran down the street catching the bag. Guys. It's put
an awful lot of fun. You know, if you look
back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood,
(01:59):
the drama, the action, the intensity, the loss. And yet
when it came down to actually telling the real story
of Sir Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going
(02:21):
to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That
journey started out very early in my life, at the
age of eighteen months went very suddenly in the evening
I went profoundly deaf. There was never a cause, non,
(02:43):
I wasn't safe. I just had my cure in one moment,
and the next moment I was walking the path of Sitans.
Years was spent with the speech therapist in front of
a mirror with my hand on her throat, feeling the
vibes and making those same vibes. At the same time,
(03:08):
I would be looking in the mirror watching her form
her lips that make the word, and then for me
the try to form my lips the same way. After
years of speech therapy, became voice lesson no, not for
a professional thing, but only to get my voice the
(03:30):
fluctuate to go up and down and up and down,
and after years the voice came to ramatic reading only
for the articulation and annunciation of wordens. So many many
years has gone into this voice, and yet I know
I still talk funny, and people say, oh, no, you don't,
(03:55):
but I do. Well, how do you know them? Well?
I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel,
any place at any time, and somebody will always come
up to me and say, where are you from. You
really have an accent. It's just a little bit different,
(04:17):
and I'm aware of that. I went to public school.
Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be
able to read a lips of best that I couldn't.
I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to
follow what the class was doing. And I remember that
(04:38):
day and as far as watching the students stand by
their death and I finally figured it out. They were
introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day,
and I remember getting up and standing beside my desk
and very proudly looking out at my class maison singing
(05:00):
something like and what that The entire class they erupted
and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard that
day I turned around to try to figure why everybody
was laughing, and when I couldn't figure it out, I
(05:22):
just sat down. But I came to realize that every
time I was to open my mouth to speak, the
entire class would erupt and laughed him. And I got
to the point or I went open my mouth. For
twelve years, I sat in the silence, and never once
(05:47):
that I opened my mouth. And that's school the finy
moment of having my teacher come up to me one
day at my death, and she looked off beside that
day and she reached down and took my hands in
hers and she let me out of the classroom. And
(06:09):
that day is seemed blooked with an awful on one.
And that was the day I entered another class. I
entered what was known as the dummy class. And now
all these kids had more ammunition to work with. I
just didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There
(06:33):
was three things in my life as a child that
saved me from total despair. One my parents went to
church on Sundays and they tried to instill in me
that there was a God that did not make any mistakes.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas. Yes,
and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been.
I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And
I know we can all conjure up what that must
have been like for her, as many of us may
have been those kids laughing at her, or at least
hurting for her and not standing up for her. And
then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes.
(07:19):
When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story a
unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the our American Stories family. If you
(07:39):
agree that America is a good and great country, please
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Go to our American Stories dot Com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And
(08:09):
we continue with our American Stories. In the story of
Sue Thomas.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
They tried to tell me about his son named Jesus,
and that if I went to hold on to his
hand and allow him to lead me and guide me,
that there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do, or
anything that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song
(08:42):
to get that. I had a song. No, I have
no recollection of music, but I had a mother that
loved music, and she wanted to pass that love on
her or her daughter whether she could hear her on.
(09:02):
And as a little kid, she would placed me on
her lap as she sat in the rock and show,
rocking back and forth, singing all of her favorite songs.
With my head on her shoulder. As she sang, I
could feel the vibrations, and if I really liked the
song particularly well, my hand was sort of creep up
(09:25):
and lay gently on her throat. But I could get
all the vibes that I possibly couldn't. It must have
been around Christmas time, because one of the first songs
that my mom every time was Silent Night, and I
loved that fun Now as a little kid, it wasn't
(09:50):
the worries, the words had no meaning. Rather, it was
the rhythm and the flow of the broad void tremendous peace.
And I can remember after a long, lastly day of school,
going home on the school bus, looking out the window
(10:11):
with my nose all pressed up against the glass so
nobody's seeing the tears flow down my chain, way down Dean,
I was singing sight at night, and I'd be okay.
The only thing I ever wanted as a kid was
(10:37):
a friend. Let's face them, who wants to be a
friend to a dummy? Who wants to be a friend
to somebody that talks from him? And I never knew
what the word friendship man, at least not until I
(10:58):
got to high school. And by the time I went
to high school, I met up with those crimes that
was totally disrespectful, outright rebellion in the alcohol, in the
drug into everything. You know, with my means of escape,
(11:18):
at least trying to escape the world is silence. God
hand was upon me where he brought in a teacher
in my junior year that believed in me and began
to work with me one on one. It was through
(11:40):
her life. I went to college, and even though I
got to college, it took me eight years to leave
the place. Eight years past I thought the war couldn't
wait to give me a job, but I found out
the work could wait forever. There wasn't one person that
(12:03):
was wanting to give me a job simply because I
couldn't use the tumbele phone, or they thought that I
would misunderstand what was being sudden. And I went back
to the same hearing in speech center that taught me
to speak, pounded on their door and asking for a job.
(12:24):
They fell sorry for me, WHI they hired me even
when they didn't have a job. I became like a
go for a jack of all trade, doing whatever they
wanted me to do. And I remember some days taking
paper clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips
(12:44):
in another box, and I'm putting them in the closet.
I was only there for a few short months. You
say it was defended the hearing in speech center, who
in turn had a fend the lived in Washington, d C.
Who in turn had to defend the work for the
(13:05):
Department of State, who in turn had to defend the
work for the FBI. Are you following this so a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
from Washington, d C. To Youngstown, Ohio. I get when
that the FBI is looking for deaf people. And if
(13:28):
you don't think that, I panicked. I thought to myself,
what did we do? I talk them a long time
to calm me down, that dame. Basically they said, you
didn't do anything. They just want to know if you
want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was
(13:48):
finally going to hore me for who I was scrats,
I'm going to Washington, d C. That's awesome. But the
more I realized that, the more I knew I was
to be with the other BI, it just doesn't get
any better. So off I go to Washington, d sane
and the first week is like a dream come true.
(14:11):
They took me around, they introduced me to all the
special agents, and after all the introductions was over, they
took me downstairs to the firing range where all the
agents practiced their target shooting. That was the very first mistake.
The second mistake is when they handed to me a
Thompson forty five sub machine gun. I shot up their
(14:35):
entire shitting that day without even trying. It's a long
time before they let me go back downstairs. And then
I started my training to become what was known as
a fingerprint examiner for the FBI. Within the first five minutes,
I realized they had made the greatest mistake of my life. Someday,
(15:00):
when you don't have anything else to do, take a
look at any one of your fingers really really close.
All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job to
count every single one of those lines on that finger
eight hours the day, five days the winter. And I
(15:22):
can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've
seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in.
She's all up sunned. She tells me, I have to
get to the front office right away. There's only two
reasons the person goes to the front office of the FBI,
(15:45):
either to be terminated from their job or to be
in curiated by the FBI agents. I get to the
front office, I walk in and they tell me to
sit down. Day the question started and they went something
like this, Mss Thomas, and we understand that you readlips
(16:12):
to communicate, and you do a very good job. But
there's only one thing you want to know, just one thing.
Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV? That's all
(16:35):
you guys want to know. It's not a federal crime
to watch TV. I can pass and watch TV. Well,
is it difficult for miss Thomas? Do you get anything
out of him? Yeah? I do, I mean no, I don't.
(17:03):
I mean, I don't know. Do you know what I mean?
You're not the cameras on the person, and I can
see their lips, I can read them, but so many
times the camera's not on the person that I can't
see anything. So I don't know when anything's brings done.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice
she owns it now you can hear it. But as
a young person, well every time she opened her mouth,
kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she
sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI,
well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense
of humor. What a life story. When we come back
(17:45):
more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American
story and we continue with our American stories and the
(18:11):
story of Sue Thomas. Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, how about movies, mus Thomas, to go to movies,
is it any beoutterpier? Oh? Yes, I go to movies
and it's a lot better. It really is, you know,
it's the lips. They're a lot bigger. On and on
went the questions, and I came to realize that the
(18:39):
FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a
case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when
the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all
this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't
hear it. They wanted to know if I was sit
(19:02):
and watched the film and write any warriors down that
I could. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on,
I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on,
I read lips for the FBI, and they sum up
my job. I followed the bad guys around and I
(19:23):
read the lips. Then I went and told the good
guys what the bad guys were saying, and they even
paid me to do it too. And overnight, like the
snap of a finger, I finally made it in the
world of sound good job, good selling, somewhat of a
(19:46):
novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to
the Congressional and started US Party, And for three and
a half years I lived in the fast lane of Washington, DC,
celebrating my sisters. I'm thirty five years of age, when
(20:08):
I'm at the prime of the FBI. For thirty five years,
I have hated every step step that I turn. When
I was young, my parents tried to instill me that
(20:32):
God never made a mistake, and in my youth I
believed them and I held them. But supposedly, with each
passing year of getting older and supposedly wiser, I began
(20:54):
to doubt them. But by the time I'm with the FBI,
I totally doubted God, and I wanted to confine him
once and for all. I wanted him to confess that, yes, indeed,
(21:19):
he had made a mistake. So I resigned from the
behind to go to Columbia International Seminary CiU in South Carolina.
(21:40):
Not to go there to become a preacher, and not
to go there to become a missionary, but with only
one objective to confine God face to face, to ask
him why he made a mistake. The mistake with him minor,
(22:05):
it was major. I mean, after anybody that would know
of the mistake would have consideration of why I had
to do this. Here wasn't enough that He created in
me a heart that loves people. I love people, and
(22:27):
that came by God's creation that he put within me.
But it's compounded by the issue that even though he
created that love and I want to be with people,
he allowed the silence to overtake me, that it was
physically impossible to be with people. That my friends, is
(22:52):
a mistake as a whopper. He don't give somebody something
and then we move it in a tangible way where
they can't have it. Helen Killers started best when she
started Blindness separates the person from things and the objects.
(23:13):
Depthness separates the person from people. She'd write, Oh yeah,
I'm a good lip reader. In my prime. I can
be in a high wise building in New York City
with a pair of field glasses, looking across the street
and another high wise building and telling your word for
(23:36):
word what was being said. I'm good or I was
I'm so good. I can even do two people, and
that's like watching tennis. Somebody will talk, they'll stop, they'll talk,
they'll stop, they'll talk. There I can get it. But
(23:57):
you add a third person and a fourth person, I
start deteriorating. I cannot function in a groom at my
heart want is so desperately, so badly. I love the party.
(24:21):
I love to be with people, but I can't. I can't.
I got the seminary. God was waiting. You see him.
He didn't just give me one or two friends and
(24:44):
seminary that I could relate to. He had twenty five
friends waiting for me twenty five. I can't be with
three people long, twenty five and yet every day we
got to class together. We were sharing mules together, we
(25:08):
were studying, we were praying, we were saying, we were
always together. And these people saw their outward shawl of supers,
the party animal, happy girl liking the line because what
(25:29):
they didn't know is that when I left them missed
and I went back to my apartment, I totally destroyed
everything that I can get my hands on. The bitterness
and resentment started doing the first year of first grade.
(25:54):
That puts me in six years old them from the
age of six to the age of thirty five. That
baggage was grown with each passing on that I was
a broken person. I was a reasonful person. I despised,
(26:20):
there wasn't a shred of happiness within. And now I'm
with twenty five new friends, and what.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
A story, folks, in my goodness, With each passing year
As I got older, I began to doubt that God
doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five, I wanted to confront
God once and for all and about one thing, that yes,
he did make a mistake, and my goodness, to hear
her talk about her bitterness. The bitterness and resentment had
(26:52):
started in the first year of first grade, at the
age of six, right to the age of thirty five,
that baggage was growing with each moment. There wasn't a
shred of happiness in me. When we come back more
of this remarkable confession, this beautiful confession here on our
(27:13):
American stories, and we continue here with our American stories
(27:40):
and with Sue Thomas's story. And now here's the final part.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So many times I cried out the God, please give
me my hearing, Please just let me Sue. And it
was always the same answer, the Great So I turned
from goden I more or less gave up on him.
(28:11):
I went to the one friend in seminary and I
told her a lie. I told her that I had
determined disease, that I was dying, because in my warped mind,
I thought of she believed me. She would want to
spend as much time with me one on one, and
(28:34):
that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize the
split second that I told that lie that it would
last for all seven months. And I had no idea
that the first person I told that lie too, that
would have fanned out for those twenty five people. And
(28:54):
surely I had no idea that that lie would totally
sinsume me and destroy them seven longman's paths. And I
was wasting away, and there came a home that I
(29:17):
could not take it any longer. And I went to
that same fing and I then please call my advisor
in school, tell them that I needed to see him
as soon as possible. Tell them to have another faculty
remember with him. It's origin. And I met with those
(29:39):
two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed my sin.
I knew that I would have to go to those
twenty five different people and to tell them the truth,
and I was prepared to do that. I wanted to
do it. But what I didn't know is that I
(30:02):
would have to stand before the entire academic committee of
that school. The night before I wished to meet that
committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life
the shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I
(30:26):
got my suitcase out and I began to pack to
run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing,
my Bible fell on the floor, and when I looked down,
I sort of chuckled and I shook my head because
(30:49):
I could not believe the pages that were staring back
to me. I put the Bible on the bed and
I went down on the floor, based down, and I
cried out for God, for mercy, for forgiveness. That I
(31:17):
told him that the thirty five years I went to church,
I saddened the peer. I sang that Kim I talked
to talk and told people I was this Christian? How
dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire
(31:42):
academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my
speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that
had a hard time understanding me. The one thing that
(32:03):
I remember more than anything and on that day of
my confession, but that's all, was one lone man stutting
in a chair, his head within his hands, and as
(32:25):
he heard me speak, he shook his head back and
forth him and as I watched him the tears flown.
That man was doctor Robinson mccorcombe, and the days before
(32:53):
that meeting, the emotions ran so high. While I say
to him, what can I say? And that day bunt
your mind and want you know it? They sat me
right next to him at a dinner table. He looked
(33:17):
at me and the first word that he spoke was Sue,
I'm so proud of you. I looked at him, and
the tears began to flow, and I choked them and
(33:41):
I took my napkin and I placed them on the
table and I said, you have to excuse me, and
I walked out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God,
he doesn't remember, he can't remember. He done. He was
part of me. So I regained my composure and I
(34:06):
went back and I was able to finish to me
all at that time. Then doctor merk qualking, I need
to see you as soon as possible, or you meet man,
he suggested tomorrow morning. I looked at him and I said,
(34:29):
tod d kick anybody out. The dread fist has anybody
And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's
that I don't think so, but I'm not sure and
(34:50):
then there was the great silence, and he said, did
we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have,
and maybe you should have, but you didn't. And then
(35:16):
you taught me of the love and the forgiveness of
Jesus Christ. And you just didn't stop with the love.
You walked me through the killing process. And then you
sent me. I don't know where I would have been
(35:43):
had you kicked me out. And yet, Big God, it
was like the snap of a finger. All I had
to do what the TV shown calls comes here in
(36:03):
the United States. Sober four million people have watched it today.
That show is being seen in sixty five nations around
the world, Germany, South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, second point sixty
(36:27):
five nations. And the people writing me thinking, they're writing
this celebrity and I have the opportunity the sheriff's celebrity. Now,
that's greatest sinner saved by grace.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yes, that is the real story of Sir Thomas at
the I.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That is the truth, the hold truth, and nothing but
the truth. Soap my God.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And does anyone doubt her? No, what a thing, what
a story, what a lie, what a lie to tell?
But she was just hurting, and that's why she told it.
He was just looking for attention. And what a cry
for help that was, lying about a terminal disease and
(37:31):
then having to go before your peers and then an
academic committee and well face the pain. And she was
going to run away, and that Bible fell out of
the book and she threw herself on the threshing floor
and she called out for forgiveness and grace and she
got both. And we don't shy away from these things.
(37:52):
And this show is open to believers, non believers. Your stories,
all of them, we want to hear. And my Goodness
is maybe one of the most profoundly told. Great job,
as always by Gregg Hangler. A great and beautiful God's story.
Sue Thomas's story here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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