Treffert column: The miracle of Leslie Lemke

“This is a season that celebrates a miracle, and this story belongs to the season. It’s the story of a young man, a piano and a miracle”.

~Walter Cronkite, on Leslie Lemke during his 1980 Christmas Eve CBS Evening news broadcast.

Sometimes I am asked of all the savants I have had the privilege of meeting, who is my favorite? That’s like asking who is your favorite son or daughter.

Each savant is remarkable and special in his or her own way and it would be difficult to name one favorite.

But certainly the savant I have known the longest and visited most frequently is Leslie Lemke. So many people in the Fond du Lac area have had the privilege of hearing Leslie perform in schools or at various concerts. And he always left such an indelible impression that I am asked often: “Whatever happened to Leslie Lemke?

Leslie is alive and well, now age 62 (time flies) and playing, singing and composing his own songs as beautifully and vigorously as ever. He lives in Arpin with Mary Parker, May Lemke’s daughter, as his loving caregiver. So in the case of May Lemke (who adopted Leslie) — “the woman who willed a miracle” — the miracle continues.

What many people do not realize is the world-wide impact Leslie’s concert at Goodrich Little Theater had in June 1980. Many people still remember that concert. One of the Green Bay TV channels was there and brought me tapes the following day to try to explain what they had filmed — a blind, intellectually impaired savant, who had never had a music lesson in his life — playing flawlessly an endless repertoire of pieces such as Tchaikovsky’s “First Piano Concerto,” having heard it but one time. Also, he had a spasticity in his hands which did not allow him to hold even eating utensils, but that spasticity magically disappeared when he sat at the keyboard.

I told the TV crew I couldn’t explain that astonishing ability but I could at least identify it as savant syndrome. There was a writer from the Associated Press at that meeting and the story was carried in newspapers nationally. Walter Cronkite used the story of May and Leslie Lemke as his Christmas broadcast that year.

Leslie became an instant celebrity and made the rounds of the TV talk shows: “That’s Incredible,” “Donahue,” “Oprah (three times),” “The Morning Show,” “Geraldo,” “Joan Rivers,” and many others and I often accompanied him for comment.

In October 1983, “60 Minutes” did a show called “Genius” featuring Leslie the pianist, Alonzo Clemons the sculptor and George Finn the calendar calculator.

Watching that show was Dustin Hoffman who was “moved to tears” by the story. It helped him make the decision to play the savant in the movie “Rain Man.” That movie gave savant syndrome national and international visibility and made “autistic savant” a household term.

In its aftermath Leslie gave concerts in Japan, Norway and throughout the United States. His most recent concert — “And sings my soul” — was at Marian University on April 15, 2011. He has several DVDs available of that concert and some other earlier appearances.

Leslie continues to amaze and inspire me no matter how many times I hear him, most recently this past June when he was at a campground he loves so much. There are other musical savants but none, in my mind, as gifted as Leslie whose extraordinary savant abilities stand in such stark, jarring contrast to his disabilities.

Of special note is that Leslie not only plays the piano (and some other instruments) marvelously, but he sings with a beautiful voice and composes his own songs and lyrics, often on the spot when challenged at one of his concerts.

The story of Leslie and other savants is more than about spectacular abilities. They are stories as well about the power of love, faith, patience, belief, pride and optimism in the families of these special persons who not only care for them, but care about them as well. They are stories of acceptance and inclusion and minimizing disabilities and celebrating abilities.

In that way there is a lesson for all of us in approaching persons with disabilities, and from the special connection of Leslie Lemke to savant syndrome and Fond du Lac.

Dr. Darold Treffert of Fond du Lac is known as the world’s leading expert on Savant Syndrome.

Darold Treffert

Guest columnist Dr. Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist from Fond du Lac, is known as the world’s leading expert on Savant Syndrome. His latest book: “Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired and Sudden Savant,” won a gold award in the Psychology/Mental Health Category at the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards and a silver in the Psychology Category at the ForeWord 2011 Book of the Year Awards.

His earlier book “Extraordinary People” was the first work to comprehensively summarize what is known about this fascinating condition. Treffert was also a consultant to the movie “Rain Man,” in which Dustin Hoffman portrayed an autistic savant. Visit daroldtreffert.com/about.htm.