By Maki Somosot
Houma Today
HOUMA, La. — Sgt. Martha Skidmore, a 10-year Terrebonne Parish correctional officer, has been belting out tunes since she was 4.
As a product of a musical family — Skidmore’s mother was a gospel singer — one of Skidmore’s earliest memories was performing the gospel classic “I’m Going Through” in front of a packed church crowd while standing on top of a chair. She has never undergone any sort of formal training.
“I remember singing, but not hearing anything,” Skidmore said of the intense concentration that overtook her in the moment. “When they took me off the chair and I was walking down the hall, everyone was looking at me with an astonished expression on their face.”
Now in her early 50s, Skidmore still stuns audiences at church but has found a new and unconventional stage from which she can share her musical gifts: the parish jail in Ashland.
Full story: Jail Songbird: Correctional officer sings to inmates