Fathe Lee was part of the ATA family. Along with Don Gurka and Steve Trotter, Fathe was part of the support team for Nobody’s Children. During a set, she would wander the venue to evaluate how the band sounded and make suggestions to the mixer tec. She also could sing and play guitar making her a valuable asset. Faith owned a 1964 Silvertone H-615 acoustic guitar (with the genuine naugahyde case by the way). She took it everywhere. The saddle was missing but it had what looked like a chewed up pencil serving as both saddle and bridge. When Johnny and Marge moved to Florida in ‘72 Fathe’s guitar was in the studio at the ATA house. It got packed up with all the rest of the house and moved to storage in Miami and then to their home in Coconut Creek and stored. Marge was always home and it was a safe place. Until it wasn’t While Marge and Johnny were out shopping their home got burgled. In the middle of the day the thieves removed the front door! It’s likely they were kids because they just stole junk. They took my first guitar, a Montgomery Wards $16. Airline, and left the electrics. They trashed the place looking for stuff. They busted up the Silvertone probably by stepping on it. It was still in its case. It was sad. It had a broken neck brace and the body was crushed on one side at the bottom. I still keep it on display in my home. It has kept me grounded to where I’m from and I’ve always entertained seeing it got back to Fathe someday. Pat McLaughlin, an old country time(y) brass and bluegrass Luthier in Eustis Florida did some work on some of my projects and thought he did very good work so I brought him the Silvertone. I wanted to fix the guitar if it could even be fixed. I gave him the guitar for restoration. It took about 6 weeks. I got the guitar back on Thanksgiving and could not be more pleased.

Click to listen to Fathe's Guitar