Grammy-winning poet J. Ivy praises the teacher who recognized his potential: "My whole life changed"
CBSN
Thirty years before bright stage lights and sold-out shows became commonplace for Grammy-winning poet J. Ivy he was a high school student struggling in the wake of his parents' divorce, searching for someone to believe in him. That support came in the form of an English teacher who changed his life.
James Ivy Richardson II had just moved from Chicago's South Side to the city's suburbs with his mother and two brothers. Back then, he was an insecure teenager walking the halls of Rich Central High School.
Everything changed when he met Paula Argue, who one day told students to write a poem for homework.
On the eve of the D-Day invasion, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower spent the remaining hours of daylight with the paratroopers who were about to jump behind German lines into occupied France. A single moment captured by an Army photographer became the most enduring image of America's greatest military operation.