Leslie Lemke

Last updated

Leslie Lemke
Born (1952-01-31) January 31, 1952 (age 71) [1]
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Origin Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, US
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Piano, singing, numerous others
Years active1980–present

Leslie Lemke (born January 31, 1952) is a blind American savant who is most notable for his work as a musician.

Contents

Biography

Leslie Lemke was born prematurely in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1952. As a complication of his premature birth, he developed retinal problems, then glaucoma, and his eyes had to be surgically removed in the first months of life. He also had brain damage that caused cerebral palsy and severe intellectual disability. His birth mother gave him up for adoption, and the county asked May Lemke, a nurse-governess, if she would take Lemke into her receiving home. [2] He was 12 before he learned to stand, and 15 before he learned to walk.

Though social services had warned May Lemke that Leslie was likely to die, she maintained that he would not die under her care. To feed him, May sometimes placed cereal on his tongue and stroked his throat to encourage him to swallow. It was a year before Leslie could chew food on his own. It took years of constant care before this changed. During this time, he could sing somewhat and repeat some phrases, but was not conversant, and was distant and unemotional. He could repeat verbatim and in the exact tone what he had heard, including, "Foster mother has done well, but the time will come when institutional placement will be necessary." To teach him to walk, the approximately four and a half foot May devised a strap system by which Leslie could be supported while he walked with her. [3]

When Leslie was 7, Joe and May Lemke obtained a piano for him, with May placing her hands over his to play some simple tunes. Soon Leslie was playing these tunes on the piano and used other instruments such as drums, accordion, and chord organ. Even though his spasticity was so severe that he could not hold eating utensils, this handicap disappeared when playing the piano. By age 12 Leslie was playing the piano and singing songs he had heard for hours on end. Though he had not often heard classical music, when he was about 16, his foster parents awoke in the middle of the night to Leslie flawlessly playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1, which he had heard on television that night. Leslie was soon playing all styles of music, from ragtime to classical.[ citation needed ]

Leslie could remember and play back a musical piece of any length flawlessly after hearing it once. Among the many songs he was estimated to know, two that he often sang were the Christian hymns "How Great Thou Art" and "Amazing Grace". [4] As time went on, Leslie became more verbal and more musically accomplished, and increasingly creative and witty. After playing back a musical piece he had heard, he sometimes launched into an improvisation of it. He was known to have composed songs on the spot, singing with a baritone voice. His verbal IQ is 58. [5]

By 1980, Leslie was regularly giving concerts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His newfound fame gained him invitations to television shows such as CBC's Man Alive , the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes , and That's Incredible! In 1983, ABC broadcast The Woman Who Willed a Miracle , a drama about Leslie and his adoptive mother. It starred Cloris Leachman as May Lemke. Leslie is also the subject of Fred Small's song, "Leslie is Different" and makes a short appearance in Michael Vey 4.

Leslie has toured the United States, Scandinavia, and Japan, and has given free concerts on occasion.

His adoptive mother May Lemke developed Alzheimer's disease and died on November 6, 1993.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperlexia</span> Significantly advanced reading ability in children

Hyperlexia is a syndrome characterized by a child's precocious ability to read. It was initially identified by Norman E. Silberberg and Margaret C. Silberberg (1967), who defined it as the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read, typically before the age of five. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly higher word-decoding ability than their reading comprehension levels. Children with hyperlexia also present with an intense fascination for written material at a very early age.

<i>Rain Man</i> 1988 film directed by Barry Levinson

Rain Man is a 1988 American road drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of abrasive, selfish young wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond, an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left with only his father's beloved vintage car and rosebushes. Valeria Golino also stars as Charlie's girlfriend Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill (1981), an earlier film that Morrow wrote.

Richard Wawro was a Scottish artist notable for his landscapes in wax oil crayon. He was an autistic savant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savant syndrome</span> Rare condition involving outstanding mental abilities despite overall mental disability

Savant syndrome is a phenomenon, sometimes following recovery from brain damage, that can create a condition in which someone despite often having significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability. Usually, only one exceptional skill is present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Wiltshire</span> British architectural artist and autistic savant

Stephen Wiltshire is a British architectural artist and autistic savant. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once. His work has gained worldwide popularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Peek</span> American savant, model for the protagonist of the film "Rain Man"

Laurence Kim Peek was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had an exceptional memory, but he also experienced social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie Rain Man. Although Peek was previously diagnosed with autism, he is now thought to have had FG syndrome. The Utah Film Center's Peek Award honors his legacy.

Jonathan Lerman is an American autistic savant outsider artist. He was born in Queens, NY, and currently resides in the upstate New York suburb of Vestal.

Alonzo Clemons is an American savant and sculptor from Boulder, Colorado. He sustained a severe brain injury as a child that left him with a developmental disability. He achieved fame for his ability to sculpt almost any animal in a realistic and anatomically accurate three-dimensional rendering even after glancing at a picture for only mere seconds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Paravicini</span> British musician

Derek Paravicini is an English autistic savant known as a musical prodigy. He resides in London.

Thristan Mendoza is a Filipino autistic savant and marimba prodigy.

Anthony Thomas "Tony" DeBlois is a blind American autistic savant and musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Tammet</span> British writer and savant (born 1979)

Daniel Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. His books have been published in over 20 languages.

George Widener is a self-taught artist who employs his mathematical/calculating capability to create art ranging from complex calendars and numerical palindromes to Rembrandt-like antiquarian landscapes to Asian scrolls. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Savage</span> Musical artist

Matthew "Matt" Savage is an American autistic savant musician.

Sharron Miller is an American television and film director, producer, and screenwriter. She is one of the pioneering women directors who worked regularly in mainstream Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984 she was the first woman ever to win the coveted Directors Guild of America Award for directing a narrative (non-documentary) work.

Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.

Darold A. Treffert was a psychiatrist and research director who specialized in the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders and savant syndrome. He lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He was on the staff at Agnesian HealthCare and served on the Board of Trustees of Marian University. Treffert was a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He was also a clinical professor at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Lewis-Clack</span>

Rex Lewis-Clack is an American pianist, considered a prodigious musical savant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Triplett</span> First person diagnosed as autistic (1933–2023)

Donald Gray Triplett was an American man known for being the first person diagnosed as autistic. He was first diagnosed by Leo Kanner, and was labeled as "Case 1". Triplett was noted for his savant abilities, particularly the ability to name musical notes played on a piano and the ability to perform rapid mental multiplication.

Ping Lian Yeak is a Malaysian Australian artist based in Sydney. He is described as having reached a significant artistic achievement. He was diagnosed with autism at a young age.

References

  1. ↑ Darius, Helene (University of Skövde, School of Humanities and Informatics). "Savant syndrome – Theories and Empirical findings." (PDF)
  2. ↑ Treffert, MD, Darold. "Leslie Lemke: An Inspirational Performance". Wisconsinmedicalsociety.org. Wisconsin Medical Society. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Autistic Savant Leslie Lemke | Families Affected by Autism" . Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  4. ↑ Treffert, Darold A. (2011). Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant. London: Jessica Kingsley. ISBN   978-1849058735.
  5. ↑ Treffert, Darold. "Whatever Happened to Leslie Lemke?". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved August 4, 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.