September 18, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Sue Thomas’s life became the inspiration for the TV drama Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, but the real story is far more powerful than anything Hollywood put on screen. Born profoundly deaf, she grew up learning to read lips and pushed past low expectations to earn a place inside the FBI. There, she became the Bureau’s first deaf agent and proved that disability could be turned into strength.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first
deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip
reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team with the FBI.
(00:34):
In nineteen ninety, Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night,
which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas
FBI e Ye. The continuing story of her life is
chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories
about living with multiple sclerosis.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have remembered that
TV's show called of FBID. And as I traveled around
the country speaking, I find that I keep getting as
three most popular questions. Question number one, are you the
(01:16):
real sir Thomas? Question number two, how long did you
work for the FBI? Only for three and a half years,
just long enough to get a TV show out of it?
And question number three did you really run down the
(01:37):
street capturing the bad guys? Do I look like I
ran down the street capturing the bag guy. I've put
an awful lot of fun. You know, if you look
back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood,
(01:59):
the drama, the action, the intensity, the laws. And yet
when it came down to actually telling the real story
of Sir Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going
(02:21):
to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That
journey started out very early in my life, at the
age of eighteen months, when very suddenly in the evening
I went profoundly deaf. There was never a cause none.
(02:43):
I wasn't sick. I just had my cur in one
moment and the next moment I was walking the path
of silence. Years was spent with the speech therapist in
front of a mirror with my hand on her throat,
feeling the vibes and making those same vibes. At the
(03:07):
same time, I would be looking in the mirror watching
her form her lips that make the word, and then
for me the try to form my lips the same way.
After years of speech therapy came voice lesson No, not
for a professional thing, but only to get my voice
(03:30):
the fluctuate to go up and down and up and down,
and after years the voice came to dramatic reading only
for the articulation and annunciation of wordens. So many many
years has gone into this voice, and yet I know
I still talk funny, and people say, oh, no, you don't,
(03:55):
but I do. Well. How do you know that? Well?
I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel,
any place at any time, and somebody will always come
up to me and say, where are you from. You
really have an accent. It's just a little bit different,
(04:17):
and I'm aware of that. I went to public school.
Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be
able to read a lips of best that I couldn't.
I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to
follow what the class was doing. And I remember that
(04:38):
day and as far as watching the students stand by
their death and I finally figured it out. They were
introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day,
and I remember getting up and standing beside my desk
and very proudly looking out at my class. Maison sang
(05:00):
something like and what that The entire class they erupted
and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard. That
day I turned around to try to figure why everybody
was laughing, and when I couldn't figure it out, I
(05:22):
just sat down. But I came to realize that every
time I was to open my mouth to speak, the
entire class would erupted and laughed him. And I got
to the point or I went open my mouth. For
twelve years, I sat in the silence, and never once
(05:47):
that I opened my mouth. And that's school the finy
moment of having my teacher come up to me one
day at my death, and she looked up beside that
day and she reached down and took my hands in hers,
and she let me out of the classroom. And that
(06:09):
day is seemed bloked with an awful on one. And
that was the day I entered another class. I entered
what was known as the dummy class. And now all
these kids had more ammunition to work with. I just
didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There was
(06:33):
three things in my life as a child that saved
me some total dispair. One my parents went to church
on Sundays and they tried to instill in me that
there was a God that did not make any mistakes.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas. Yes,
and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been.
I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And
I know we can all conjure up what that must
have been like for her, as many of us may
have been those kids laughing at her or at least
hurting for her and not standing up for her. And
then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes.
(07:19):
When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story A
unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Lee
hbib here, and I'm inviting you to help our American
Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon.
If you want to help inspire countless others to love
(07:40):
America like we do, and want to help us bring
the inspiring and important stories told here about a good
and beautiful country, please consider making a tax deductible donation
to our American Stories. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Any amount helps Go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and give, and we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
In the story of Sue Thomas.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
They tried to tell me about his son named Jesus,
and that if I went to hold onto his hand
and allow him to lead me and guide me, that
there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do, or anything
that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song to
(08:42):
get that. I had a song. No, I have no
recollection of music, but I had a mother that loved music,
and she wanted to pass that love on her or
ne daughter whether she could hear her on. And as
(09:03):
a little kid, she would placed me on her lap
as she sat in the rock and show, rocking back
and forth, singing all of her favorite songs. With my
head on her shoulder. As she sang, I could feel
the vibrations, and if I really liked the song particularly well,
(09:23):
my hand was sort of creep up and lay gently
on her throat. But I could get all the vibes
that I possibly couldn't. It must have been around Christmas time,
because one of the first songs that my mom every
time was Silent Night, and I loved that son. Now,
(09:48):
as a little kid, it wasn't the words. The words
had no meaning. Rather, it was the rhythm and the
flow of the broad void tremendous peace. And I can
remember after a long, lastly day of school, going home
on the school bus, looking out the window with my
(10:12):
nose all pressed up against the glass so nobody's seeing
the tears flow down my chin, way down Dean, I
was singing fight at night, and I'd be okay. The
only thing I ever wanted as a kid was a friend.
(10:40):
Let's face them, who wants to be a friend to
a dummy? Who wants to be a friend to somebody
that talks from him? And I never knew what the
word friendship man, at least not until I got to
high school. By the time I went to high school,
(11:02):
I met up with those crown that was totally disrespectful,
outright rebellion in the alcohol, in the drug, into everything you.
It was my means of escape, at least trying to
escape the world of silence. God can with upon me,
(11:28):
where he brought in a teacher in my junior year
that believed in me and began to work with me
one on one. It was through her life. I went
to college, and even though I got to college, it
took me eight years to leave the place. Eight years
(11:51):
past I thought the war couldn't wait to give me
a job, but I found out the work could wait
for her. There wasn't one person that was wanting to
give me a job simply because I couldn't use the
tumbel phone, or they thought that I would misunderstand what
was being sudden. And I went back to the same
(12:14):
hearing in speech center that taught me to speak, pounded
on their door and asking for a job. They felt
sorry for me a whif they hired me even when
they didn't have a job. I became like a go
for a jack of all trade, doing whatever they wanted
(12:36):
me to do. And I remember some days taking paper
clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips in
another box, and I'm putting them in the closset. I
was only there for a few short mans. You say
it was defended the Hearing and Speed Center, who in
(12:59):
turn had a fend the lived in Washington, d C.
Who in turn had to fend the work for the
Department of State, who in turn had to fend the
work for the FBI. Are you following this so a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
from Washington, d C. To Youngstown, Ohio. I get when
(13:23):
that the FBI is looking for deaf people. And if
you don't think that, I panicked that out to myself.
What did we do? I took them a long time
to calm me down, that dame. Basically, they said, you
didn't do anything. They just want to know if you
(13:44):
want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was
finally going to hire me for who I was scratsand
I'm going to Washington, d C. That's awesome. But the
more I realized that, the more I knew I was
going to be with the FBI, it just doesn't get
any better. So off I go to Washington, desane, and
(14:08):
the first week is like a dream come true. They
took me around, they introduced me to all the special
agent and after all the introductions was over, they took
me downstairs to the firing range where all the agents
practiced their target shooting. That was the very first mistake.
The second mistake is when they handed me at Thompson
(14:31):
forty five sub machine gun. I shot up their entire
shitting that day without even trying. It's a long time
before they let me go back downstairs. And then I
started my training to become what was known as the
fingerprint examiner for the FBI. Within the first five minutes,
(14:54):
I realized they had made the greatest mistake in my life. Someday,
when you don't have anything else to do, take a
look at any one of your fingers really really close.
All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job. They
count every single one of those lines on that finger
(15:18):
eight hours the day, five days the wing. And I
can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've
seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in.
She's all up stunned. She tells me, I have to
get to the front office right away. There's only two
(15:41):
reasons the person goes to the front office of the FBI,
either to be terminated from their job or to be
in curiated by the FBI asians. I get to the
front office, I walk in and they tell me to
sit down. Day the question started and they went something
(16:05):
like this, Ms. Thomas, and we understand that you read
lips to communicate, and you do a very good job.
But there's only one thing we want to know, just
one thing. Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV?
(16:35):
That's all you guys want to know. It's not a
federal crime to watch TV. I can pass and watch TV. Well,
is it difficult for you, miss Thomas? Do you get
anything out of him? Yeah? I do, I mean no,
(17:00):
I don't. I mean, I don't know. Do you know
what I mean? You're not the cameras on the person,
and I can see their lips, I can read them,
but so many times the camera's not on the person
that I can't see anything, So I don't know when
anything's brings done.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice
she owns it now you can hear it. But as
a young person, well every time she opened her mouth,
kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she
sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI,
well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense
of humor. What a life story. When we come back
(17:45):
more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American story,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Sue Thomas.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, how about movies, mus Thomas, to go to movies?
Is it any better, fear? Oh? Yes, I go to
movies and it's a lot better, it really is. You know.
It's the lips, they're a lot bigger. On and on
went the question, and I came to realize that the
(18:39):
FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a
case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when
the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all
this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't
hear it. They wanted to know if I was sit
(19:02):
and watched the film and write any warriors down that
I could. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on,
I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on,
I read lips for the FBI, and they sum up
my job. I followed the bad guys around and I
(19:23):
read the lips. Then I went and told the good
guys what the bad guys were saying. And they even
paid me to do it too. And overnight, like the
snap of a finger, I finally made it in the
world of sound good job, good selling, somewhat of a
(19:46):
novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to
the congressional and stunted US Party, And for three and
a half years I lived in the fast lane of Washington, DC,
celebrating my sister. I'm thirty five years of age when
(20:08):
I'm at the prime of the FBI, and for thirty
five years, I have hated every step, the step that
I took. When I was young, my parents tried to
(20:29):
instill in me that God never made a mistake, and
in my youth I believed them and I held them.
But supposedly, with each passing year of getting order and
supposedly wiser, I began to doubt them. That by the
(20:57):
time I'm with the FBI, I totally doubted God. And
I wanted to confine him once and for all. I
wanted him to confess that, yes, indeed, he had made
(21:20):
a mistake. So I resigned from the FBI to go
to Columbia International Seminary CiU in South Carolina. Not to
go there to become a preacher, and not to go
(21:45):
there to become a missionary, but with only one objective
to confine God face to face, to ask him why
he made a mistake. The mistake with him minor, it
was major. I mean, after anybody that would know of
(22:10):
the mistake would have consideration of why I had to
do this. It wasn't enough that He created in me,
oh height that loves people. I love people and that
came by God's creation, that he put within me. But
(22:33):
it's compounded by the issue that even though he created
that love and I want to be with people, he
allowed the silence to overtake me, that it was physically
impossible to be with people. That, my friends, is a mistake.
(22:54):
As a whopper. He don't give somebody something and then
we move it in a tangible way where they can't
have it. Helling killed hers started best when she started.
Blindness separates the person from things and the objects. Depthness
separates the person from people. She's fright. Oh yeah, I'm
(23:20):
a good lip reader. In my prime. I can be
in a high wise building in New York City with
a pair of fuel glasses, looking across the street and
another high wise building and telling your word for word
what was being said. I'm good or I was I'm
(23:43):
so good. I can even do two people. And that's
like watching tennis. Somebody will talk, they'll stop, they'll talk,
they'll stop, they'll talk, they're there. I can get it,
but you ad a third person and a fourth person.
I started deteriorating. I cannot function in a groom at
(24:11):
my heart wants is so desperately and so badly. I
love the pardon. I love to be with people, but
I can't. I can't. I got the seminary. God was waiting,
(24:38):
you see him. He didn't just give me one or
two friends and seminary that I could relate to. He
had twenty five friends waiting for me twenty five. I
can't be with three people loan twenty five. And yet
(25:02):
every day we got to class together, we were sharing
meals together, we were studying, we were praying, we were saying,
we were always together. And these people saw their outward
shall of supers the party animal, happy girl liking the line,
(25:28):
because what they didn't know is that when I left
them missed and I went back to my apartment, I
totally destroyed everything that I can get my hands on.
The bitterness and resentment started doing the first year of
(25:51):
first grade. That puts me in six years old. Them
from the age of six to the age of thirty five.
That bad age was grown with each passing, only that
(26:13):
I was a broken person. I was a reasonful person.
I despised that wasn't a shrad up of happiness within.
And now I'm with twenty five new friends.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And what a story. Folks in my goodness.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
With each passing year, as I got older, I began
to doubt that God doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five,
I wanted to confront God once and for all and
about one thing, that yes, he did make a mistake
and my goodness, to hear her talk about her bitterness.
The bitterness and resentment had started in the first year
(26:55):
of first grade, at the age of six. Right to
the age of thirty five, that baggage was growing with
each moment. There wasn't a shred of happiness in me.
When we come back more of this remarkable confession, this
beautiful confession here on our American stories, and we continue
(27:38):
here with our American stories and with Sue Thomas's story,
And now here's the final part.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So many times I cried out the God, please give
me my hearing, please just let me see, And it
was always the same answer, the grace. So I turned
from God. I more or less gave up on him.
(28:11):
I went to the one friend in seminary and I
told her a lie. I told her that I had
determined disease, that I was dying, because in my warped
mind I thought of she believed me. She would want
to spend as much time with me one on one,
(28:34):
and that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize
the split second that I told that lie that it
would last for all his seven months. And I had
no idea that the first person I told that lie too,
that when it fanned out, that those twenty five people,
(28:54):
and surely I had no idea that that lie would
totally sinsume me and destray them seven longman's paths. And
I was wasting away, and there came a home that
(29:17):
I could not take it any longer. And I went
to that same thing, and I then please call my
advisor at school, tell them that I needed to see
him as soon as possible. Tell them to have another
faculty member with him. It's urgent. And I met with
(29:38):
those two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed
my sin. I knew that I would have to go
to those twenty five different people and to tell them
the truth, and I was prepared to do that. I
wanted to do it. But what I didn't is that
(30:02):
I would have to stand before the entire academic committee
of that school. The night before I wished to meet
that committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life.
The shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I
(30:26):
got my suitcase out and I began to pack to
run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing,
my Bible fell on the floor, and when I looked down,
I sort of chuckled and I shook my head because
(30:49):
I could not believe the pages that were staring back
to me. I put the Bible on the bed and
I went down on the floor, face down, and I
cried out for God, for mercy, for forgiveness. That I
(31:17):
told him that the thirty five years I went to church,
I saddened the pure. I sang that Kim I talked
to talk and told people I was this Christian? How
dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire
(31:42):
academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my
speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that
had a hard time understanding me. The one thing that
(32:03):
I remember more than anything, and on that day of
my confession with That's all, was one lone man sitting
in a chair, his head within his hands, and as
(32:25):
he heard me speak, he shook his head back for him,
and as I watched him the tears. That man was
(32:46):
doctor Robinson mccorcombe. In the days before that meeting, the
emotions ran so high. Will I say to him? What
can I say? And that day bound your rind and
(33:08):
want you know it. They sat me right next to
him at a dinner table. He looked at me and
the first word that he spoke was Sue, I'm so
proud of you. I looked at him, and the tears
(33:36):
began to flow, and I choked them and I took
my napkin and I placed them on the table and
I said, you have to excuse me, and I walked
out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God,
he doesn't remember, he can't remember. He don nehb was
(34:00):
part of me. So I regained my composure and I
went back and I was able to finish to me
all at that promise and doctor merk walking, I need
to see you as soon as possible, or you meet
with me, he suggested tomorrow morning. I looked at him
(34:29):
and I said, Tod dab, kick anybody out the dread first, anybody,
And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's
that I don't think so, but I'm not sure. And
(34:50):
then there was the great silence, and he said, did
we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have,
and maybe you should have, but you didn't. Instn You
(35:17):
taught me of the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ,
and you just didn't stop with the love. You walked
me through the killing process and then you sent me.
(35:39):
I don't know where I would have been had you
kicked me out, And yet bring that, it was like
the snap of a finger. All I had to do
what the TV shown calls Thomas. Here in the United States,
(36:05):
sober four million people have watched it today. That show
is being seen in sixty five nations around the world, Germany,
South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, second point sixty five nations. And
(36:30):
the people writing me thinking, they're writing this celebrity and
I have the opportunity, the sheriff's celebrity now God's greatest
sinner saved by grace. Yes, that is the real story
(36:55):
of Sir Thomas. That is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Help my God, And does anyone doubt her?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
No?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
What a thing, what a story, what a lie? What
a lie to tell, but she was just hurting and
that's why she told it. He was just looking for attention.
And what a cry for help that was, lying about
a terminal disease and then having to go before your
peers and then an academic committee and well face the pain.
(37:37):
And she was going to run away, and that Bible
fell out of the book and she threw herself on
the threshing floor and she called out for forgiveness and
grace and she got both. And we don't shy away
from these things. And this show is open to believers,
non believers. Your stories, all of them, we want to hear.
(37:58):
And my goodness is maybe one of the most profound
we've told. Great job is always by Gregg Hangler, A
great and beautiful God's story to Thomas's story.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Sue Thomas became the first
deaf person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip
reading of suspects for an elite surveillance team with the FBI.
(00:34):
In nineteen ninety, Thomas wrote her autobiography entitled Silent Night,
which became the basis for the TV series Sue Thomas
FBI e Ye. The continuing story of her life is
chronicled in Staying in the Race, where Thomas shares stories
about living with multiple sclerosis.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here, Sue Thomas, some of you might have remembered that
TV's show called of FBID. And as I traveled around
the country speaking, I find that I keep getting as
three most popular questions. Question number one, are you the
(01:16):
real sir Thomas? Question number two, how long did you
work for the FBI? Only for three and a half years,
just long enough to get a TV show out of it?
And question number three did you really run down the
(01:37):
street capturing the bad guys? Do I look like I
ran down the street capturing the bag guy. I've put
an awful lot of fun. You know, if you look
back on my life, it has all the elements for Hollywood,
(01:59):
the drama, the action, the intensity, the laws. And yet
when it came down to actually telling the real story
of Sir Thomas, Hollywood wouldn't even touch him. I'm going
(02:21):
to share the story that Hollywood wouldn't even touch. That
journey started out very early in my life, at the
age of eighteen months, when very suddenly in the evening
I went profoundly deaf. There was never a cause none.
(02:43):
I wasn't sick. I just had my cur in one
moment and the next moment I was walking the path
of silence. Years was spent with the speech therapist in
front of a mirror with my hand on her throat,
feeling the vibes and making those same vibes. At the
(03:07):
same time, I would be looking in the mirror watching
her form her lips that make the word, and then
for me the try to form my lips the same way.
After years of speech therapy came voice lesson No, not
for a professional thing, but only to get my voice
(03:30):
the fluctuate to go up and down and up and down,
and after years the voice came to dramatic reading only
for the articulation and annunciation of wordens. So many many
years has gone into this voice, and yet I know
I still talk funny, and people say, oh, no, you don't,
(03:55):
but I do. Well. How do you know that? Well?
I can be at the airport, a restaurant, a hotel,
any place at any time, and somebody will always come
up to me and say, where are you from. You
really have an accent. It's just a little bit different,
(04:17):
and I'm aware of that. I went to public school.
Teacher put me in the first row so i'd be
able to read a lips of best that I couldn't.
I really didn't understand too much, but I tried to
follow what the class was doing. And I remember that
(04:38):
day and as far as watching the students stand by
their death and I finally figured it out. They were
introducing themselves to their classmates. It became my turn that day,
and I remember getting up and standing beside my desk
and very proudly looking out at my class. Maison sang
(05:00):
something like and what that The entire class they erupted
and laughed him. Those kids were laughing so hard. That
day I turned around to try to figure why everybody
was laughing, and when I couldn't figure it out, I
(05:22):
just sat down. But I came to realize that every
time I was to open my mouth to speak, the
entire class would erupted and laughed him. And I got
to the point or I went open my mouth. For
twelve years, I sat in the silence, and never once
(05:47):
that I opened my mouth. And that's school the finy
moment of having my teacher come up to me one
day at my death, and she looked up beside that
day and she reached down and took my hands in hers,
and she let me out of the classroom. And that
(06:09):
day is seemed bloked with an awful on one. And
that was the day I entered another class. I entered
what was known as the dummy class. And now all
these kids had more ammunition to work with. I just
didn't talk funny. I was now the dummy. There was
(06:33):
three things in my life as a child that saved
me some total dispair. One my parents went to church
on Sundays and they tried to instill in me that
there was a God that did not make any mistakes.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you're listening to the voice of Sue Thomas. Yes,
and my goodness, what a childhood it must have been.
I just didn't talk funny. I was the dummy. And
I know we can all conjure up what that must
have been like for her, as many of us may
have been those kids laughing at her or at least
hurting for her and not standing up for her. And
then she hears about this God that doesn't make mistakes.
(07:19):
When we come back more of Sue Thomas's story A
unique and beautiful voice here on our American Stories. Lee
hbib here, and I'm inviting you to help our American
Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon.
If you want to help inspire countless others to love
(07:40):
America like we do, and want to help us bring
the inspiring and important stories told here about a good
and beautiful country, please consider making a tax deductible donation
to our American Stories. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Any amount helps Go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and give, and we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
In the story of Sue Thomas.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
They tried to tell me about his son named Jesus,
and that if I went to hold onto his hand
and allow him to lead me and guide me, that
there wouldn't be anything that I couldn't do, or anything
that I couldn't become. Secondly, I had a song to
(08:42):
get that. I had a song. No, I have no
recollection of music, but I had a mother that loved music,
and she wanted to pass that love on her or
ne daughter whether she could hear her on. And as
(09:03):
a little kid, she would placed me on her lap
as she sat in the rock and show, rocking back
and forth, singing all of her favorite songs. With my
head on her shoulder. As she sang, I could feel
the vibrations, and if I really liked the song particularly well,
(09:23):
my hand was sort of creep up and lay gently
on her throat. But I could get all the vibes
that I possibly couldn't. It must have been around Christmas time,
because one of the first songs that my mom every
time was Silent Night, and I loved that son. Now,
(09:48):
as a little kid, it wasn't the words. The words
had no meaning. Rather, it was the rhythm and the
flow of the broad void tremendous peace. And I can
remember after a long, lastly day of school, going home
on the school bus, looking out the window with my
(10:12):
nose all pressed up against the glass so nobody's seeing
the tears flow down my chin, way down Dean, I
was singing fight at night, and I'd be okay. The
only thing I ever wanted as a kid was a friend.
(10:40):
Let's face them, who wants to be a friend to
a dummy? Who wants to be a friend to somebody
that talks from him? And I never knew what the
word friendship man, at least not until I got to
high school. By the time I went to high school,
(11:02):
I met up with those crown that was totally disrespectful,
outright rebellion in the alcohol, in the drug, into everything you.
It was my means of escape, at least trying to
escape the world of silence. God can with upon me,
(11:28):
where he brought in a teacher in my junior year
that believed in me and began to work with me
one on one. It was through her life. I went
to college, and even though I got to college, it
took me eight years to leave the place. Eight years
(11:51):
past I thought the war couldn't wait to give me
a job, but I found out the work could wait
for her. There wasn't one person that was wanting to
give me a job simply because I couldn't use the
tumbel phone, or they thought that I would misunderstand what
was being sudden. And I went back to the same
(12:14):
hearing in speech center that taught me to speak, pounded
on their door and asking for a job. They felt
sorry for me a whif they hired me even when
they didn't have a job. I became like a go
for a jack of all trade, doing whatever they wanted
(12:36):
me to do. And I remember some days taking paper
clips out of one box, sticking those paper clips in
another box, and I'm putting them in the closset. I
was only there for a few short mans. You say
it was defended the Hearing and Speed Center, who in
(12:59):
turn had a fend the lived in Washington, d C.
Who in turn had to fend the work for the
Department of State, who in turn had to fend the
work for the FBI. Are you following this so a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
from Washington, d C. To Youngstown, Ohio. I get when
(13:23):
that the FBI is looking for deaf people. And if
you don't think that, I panicked that out to myself.
What did we do? I took them a long time
to calm me down, that dame. Basically, they said, you
didn't do anything. They just want to know if you
(13:44):
want a job. So I want a job. Somebody was
finally going to hire me for who I was scratsand
I'm going to Washington, d C. That's awesome. But the
more I realized that, the more I knew I was
going to be with the FBI, it just doesn't get
any better. So off I go to Washington, desane, and
(14:08):
the first week is like a dream come true. They
took me around, they introduced me to all the special
agent and after all the introductions was over, they took
me downstairs to the firing range where all the agents
practiced their target shooting. That was the very first mistake.
The second mistake is when they handed me at Thompson
(14:31):
forty five sub machine gun. I shot up their entire
shitting that day without even trying. It's a long time
before they let me go back downstairs. And then I
started my training to become what was known as the
fingerprint examiner for the FBI. Within the first five minutes,
(14:54):
I realized they had made the greatest mistake in my life. Someday,
when you don't have anything else to do, take a
look at any one of your fingers really really close.
All those lines are fingerprints. It was my job. They
count every single one of those lines on that finger
(15:18):
eight hours the day, five days the wing. And I
can honestly tell you, if you've seen one fingerprint, you've
seen them all. One day, my supervisor comes running in.
She's all up stunned. She tells me, I have to
get to the front office right away. There's only two
(15:41):
reasons the person goes to the front office of the FBI,
either to be terminated from their job or to be
in curiated by the FBI asians. I get to the
front office, I walk in and they tell me to
sit down. Day the question started and they went something
(16:05):
like this, Ms. Thomas, and we understand that you read
lips to communicate, and you do a very good job.
But there's only one thing we want to know, just
one thing. Do you watch TV? Do I watch TV?
(16:35):
That's all you guys want to know. It's not a
federal crime to watch TV. I can pass and watch TV. Well,
is it difficult for you, miss Thomas? Do you get
anything out of him? Yeah? I do, I mean no,
(17:00):
I don't. I mean, I don't know. Do you know
what I mean? You're not the cameras on the person,
and I can see their lips, I can read them,
but so many times the camera's not on the person
that I can't see anything, So I don't know when
anything's brings done.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And you're listening to Sue Thomas, and what a voice
she owns it now you can hear it. But as
a young person, well every time she opened her mouth,
kids laugh. So for twelve years, as she said, she
sat on the sidelines. And my goodness. Then the FBI,
well they're looking for deaf people. And what a sense
of humor. What a life story. When we come back
(17:45):
more with Sue Thomas, her story here on our American story,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Sue Thomas.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Bye, Sue Thomas, let's continue.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, how about movies, mus Thomas, to go to movies?
Is it any better, fear? Oh? Yes, I go to
movies and it's a lot better, it really is. You know.
It's the lips, they're a lot bigger. On and on
went the question, and I came to realize that the
(18:39):
FBI had a huge problem. They were working on a
case in which they video filmed the suspect, but when
the camera activated, the sound mechanism found they had all
this film with the bad guys talking, they just couldn't
hear it. They wanted to know if I was sit
(19:02):
and watched the film and write any warriors down that
I could. I said, sure, no problem. From that day on,
I never went back to reading fingerprints. From that day on,
I read lips for the FBI, and they sum up
my job. I followed the bad guys around and I
(19:23):
read the lips. Then I went and told the good
guys what the bad guys were saying. And they even
paid me to do it too. And overnight, like the
snap of a finger, I finally made it in the
world of sound good job, good selling, somewhat of a
(19:46):
novelty in Washington, where I began to be invited to
the congressional and stunted US Party, And for three and
a half years I lived in the fast lane of Washington, DC,
celebrating my sister. I'm thirty five years of age when
(20:08):
I'm at the prime of the FBI, and for thirty
five years, I have hated every step, the step that
I took. When I was young, my parents tried to
(20:29):
instill in me that God never made a mistake, and
in my youth I believed them and I held them.
But supposedly, with each passing year of getting order and
supposedly wiser, I began to doubt them. That by the
(20:57):
time I'm with the FBI, I totally doubted God. And
I wanted to confine him once and for all. I
wanted him to confess that, yes, indeed, he had made
(21:20):
a mistake. So I resigned from the FBI to go
to Columbia International Seminary CiU in South Carolina. Not to
go there to become a preacher, and not to go
(21:45):
there to become a missionary, but with only one objective
to confine God face to face, to ask him why
he made a mistake. The mistake with him minor, it
was major. I mean, after anybody that would know of
(22:10):
the mistake would have consideration of why I had to
do this. It wasn't enough that He created in me,
oh height that loves people. I love people and that
came by God's creation, that he put within me. But
(22:33):
it's compounded by the issue that even though he created
that love and I want to be with people, he
allowed the silence to overtake me, that it was physically
impossible to be with people. That, my friends, is a mistake.
(22:54):
As a whopper. He don't give somebody something and then
we move it in a tangible way where they can't
have it. Helling killed hers started best when she started.
Blindness separates the person from things and the objects. Depthness
separates the person from people. She's fright. Oh yeah, I'm
(23:20):
a good lip reader. In my prime. I can be
in a high wise building in New York City with
a pair of fuel glasses, looking across the street and
another high wise building and telling your word for word
what was being said. I'm good or I was I'm
(23:43):
so good. I can even do two people. And that's
like watching tennis. Somebody will talk, they'll stop, they'll talk,
they'll stop, they'll talk, they're there. I can get it,
but you ad a third person and a fourth person.
I started deteriorating. I cannot function in a groom at
(24:11):
my heart wants is so desperately and so badly. I
love the pardon. I love to be with people, but
I can't. I can't. I got the seminary. God was waiting,
(24:38):
you see him. He didn't just give me one or
two friends and seminary that I could relate to. He
had twenty five friends waiting for me twenty five. I
can't be with three people loan twenty five. And yet
(25:02):
every day we got to class together, we were sharing
meals together, we were studying, we were praying, we were saying,
we were always together. And these people saw their outward
shall of supers the party animal, happy girl liking the line,
(25:28):
because what they didn't know is that when I left
them missed and I went back to my apartment, I
totally destroyed everything that I can get my hands on.
The bitterness and resentment started doing the first year of
(25:51):
first grade. That puts me in six years old. Them
from the age of six to the age of thirty five.
That bad age was grown with each passing, only that
(26:13):
I was a broken person. I was a reasonful person.
I despised that wasn't a shrad up of happiness within.
And now I'm with twenty five new friends.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And what a story. Folks in my goodness.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
With each passing year, as I got older, I began
to doubt that God doesn't make mistakes. At thirty five,
I wanted to confront God once and for all and
about one thing, that yes, he did make a mistake
and my goodness, to hear her talk about her bitterness.
The bitterness and resentment had started in the first year
(26:55):
of first grade, at the age of six. Right to
the age of thirty five, that baggage was growing with
each moment. There wasn't a shred of happiness in me.
When we come back more of this remarkable confession, this
beautiful confession here on our American stories, and we continue
(27:38):
here with our American stories and with Sue Thomas's story,
And now here's the final part.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So many times I cried out the God, please give
me my hearing, please just let me see, And it
was always the same answer, the grace. So I turned
from God. I more or less gave up on him.
(28:11):
I went to the one friend in seminary and I
told her a lie. I told her that I had
determined disease, that I was dying, because in my warped
mind I thought of she believed me. She would want
to spend as much time with me one on one,
(28:34):
and that's exactly what happened. But when I didn't realize
the split second that I told that lie that it
would last for all his seven months. And I had
no idea that the first person I told that lie too,
that when it fanned out, that those twenty five people,
(28:54):
and surely I had no idea that that lie would
totally sinsume me and destray them seven longman's paths. And
I was wasting away, and there came a home that
(29:17):
I could not take it any longer. And I went
to that same thing, and I then please call my
advisor at school, tell them that I needed to see
him as soon as possible. Tell them to have another
faculty member with him. It's urgent. And I met with
(29:38):
those two men, tears streaming down my face, I confessed
my sin. I knew that I would have to go
to those twenty five different people and to tell them
the truth, and I was prepared to do that. I
wanted to do it. But what I didn't is that
(30:02):
I would have to stand before the entire academic committee
of that school. The night before I wished to meet
that committee was the longest, darkest, quietest night of my life.
The shame and the guilt was so unbearable that I
(30:26):
got my suitcase out and I began to pack to
run away. I couldn't face it. And while I'm packing,
my Bible fell on the floor, and when I looked down,
I sort of chuckled and I shook my head because
(30:49):
I could not believe the pages that were staring back
to me. I put the Bible on the bed and
I went down on the floor, face down, and I
cried out for God, for mercy, for forgiveness. That I
(31:17):
told him that the thirty five years I went to church,
I saddened the pure. I sang that Kim I talked
to talk and told people I was this Christian? How
dare I? The next morning, I stood before the entire
(31:42):
academic committed him, tears streaming down my face, and my
speech was so garbled with the emotion. I knew that
had a hard time understanding me. The one thing that
(32:03):
I remember more than anything, and on that day of
my confession with That's all, was one lone man sitting
in a chair, his head within his hands, and as
(32:25):
he heard me speak, he shook his head back for him,
and as I watched him the tears. That man was
(32:46):
doctor Robinson mccorcombe. In the days before that meeting, the
emotions ran so high. Will I say to him? What
can I say? And that day bound your rind and
(33:08):
want you know it. They sat me right next to
him at a dinner table. He looked at me and
the first word that he spoke was Sue, I'm so
proud of you. I looked at him, and the tears
(33:36):
began to flow, and I choked them and I took
my napkin and I placed them on the table and
I said, you have to excuse me, and I walked
out and I went outside, and I kept thinking, God,
he doesn't remember, he can't remember. He don nehb was
(34:00):
part of me. So I regained my composure and I
went back and I was able to finish to me
all at that promise and doctor merk walking, I need
to see you as soon as possible, or you meet
with me, he suggested tomorrow morning. I looked at him
(34:29):
and I said, Tod dab, kick anybody out the dread first, anybody,
And he looked puzzled, and he looked at me. It's
that I don't think so, but I'm not sure. And
(34:50):
then there was the great silence, and he said, did
we kick you out? No, sir, but you could have,
and maybe you should have, but you didn't. Instn You
(35:17):
taught me of the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ,
and you just didn't stop with the love. You walked
me through the killing process and then you sent me.
(35:39):
I don't know where I would have been had you
kicked me out, And yet bring that, it was like
the snap of a finger. All I had to do
what the TV shown calls Thomas. Here in the United States,
(36:05):
sober four million people have watched it today. That show
is being seen in sixty five nations around the world, Germany,
South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, second point sixty five nations. And
(36:30):
the people writing me thinking, they're writing this celebrity and
I have the opportunity, the sheriff's celebrity now God's greatest
sinner saved by grace. Yes, that is the real story
(36:55):
of Sir Thomas. That is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Help my God, And does anyone doubt her?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
No?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
What a thing, what a story, what a lie? What
a lie to tell, but she was just hurting and
that's why she told it. He was just looking for attention.
And what a cry for help that was, lying about
a terminal disease and then having to go before your
peers and then an academic committee and well face the pain.
(37:37):
And she was going to run away, and that Bible
fell out of the book and she threw herself on
the threshing floor and she called out for forgiveness and
grace and she got both. And we don't shy away
from these things. And this show is open to believers,
non believers. Your stories, all of them, we want to hear.
(37:58):
And my goodness is maybe one of the most profound
we've told. Great job is always by Gregg Hangler, A
great and beautiful God's story to Thomas's story.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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