Even in the midst of this heat and seeking cool comfort for ourselves, we should still think about helping others. This tea has no address, no scheduled time or date to keep. It takes place in the strong hearts of the women of the Tiara Tea Society. We are requesting a gift for our 2011 child, Ceniyah Dotson. Tiara Tea is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit Society and donations are 100% tax deductible. To make a donation, please see our donations page.

Photo by Jim Weber: Commerical Appeal

About Ceniyah

As you may recall, our 2011 Princess, Ceniyah Denae Dotson, was the youngest survivor (only a baby at the time) of the Lester Street massacre in 2008. Since then, Ceniyah has already become a beacon of hope and healing at the age of 3 years old. We ask for your continued support for Ceniyah for our “Present in Spirit” Summer Tea, so that Ceniyah can continue with her healing physically and most of all, emotionally, as she becomes more aware of the impact of her survival. As always, we thank you for continuing to celebrate the gifts of phenomenal women and the princess in all of us, through your support!

Judeline (left) & mother, Edeline happy to be together in their new home.

Judeline update: Judeline is back in school and her mother, Edeline is now working as a cook. In March, construction on their apartment was finished and they have a new home. Judeline walks and uses both hands without pain.
They visited the hospital where Judeline lay for 262 days as a patient and no one recognized her! Dr. Bruce and Mary Ann Minkin are in touch with her often. Bless you for making this possible!

Related articles

• Little survivor: Tiara Tea Society celebrates youngest Lester Street victim at fundraiser (tiarateasociety.org)
• Youngest Lester Street victim gets playful physical therapy from Ballet Memphis class (tiarateasociety.org)
• 2011 Princess, Ceniyah Dotson (tiarateasociety.org)
• TTS interview on Fox News (tiarateasociety.org)
• Young Lester Street Massacre survivor is princess for a day (tiarateasociety.org)

By Barbara Bradley: Features reporter for The Commercial Appeal

Photo by Jim Weber: Ceniyah Dotson is placed in a pose by classmate Hannah Rogers during dance class at the Ballet Memphis studio.

The big studio with its towering windows at Ballet Memphis must have looked like a new world to Ceniyah Dotson, 3, who arrived for dance class Thursday in Cordova wearing her new pink ballet costume.

Ceniyah was smaller and younger than most of the girls, and the only one who had never studied dancing. But quietly, shyly, sweetly, she got a handle on it. Attentive to the two young teachers and fascinated by the other girls, she mimicked their movements, saying nothing until the students, engaged in a stretching game, were asked to wiggle their fingers down their legs as if they were bugs. “I hate bugs!” she offered.

Barely detectable under her tights was the cruel scar left after she was impaled with a knife at the age of 2 months by her uncle, Jessie Dotson, in the worst mass murder case in Memphis history.

Ceniyah is the youngest survivor of the notorious 2008 Lester Street murders in which Jessie Dotson shot and killed her parents, Cecil Dotson and Marissa Williams, shot and killed two other adults and stabbed and beat to death two of her brothers, then ages 4 and 2.

Her brother “CJ” Dotson, then 9, and Cedric Dotson, then 5, who survived the attack, were also viciously stabbed and all three survivors were beaten.

Photo by Jim Weber: Ceniyah Dotson, the youngest survivor of the 2008 Lester Street killings, gets excited about her class Thursday at Ballet Memphis in Cordova. The company scheduled the four-week course with Ceniyah in mind and is taking her on scholarship.

Ballet Memphis scheduled the special, four-week, summer mini-course with Ceniyah in mind and is taking her on scholarship. The idea is to give  her physical therapy in a way that will seem to her like play, said Eva Lynn Bishop, a founder of Tiara Tea Society of Memphis, which chooses one girl in dire need each year to assist. Her injured thigh needs strengthening. If she likes dancing, Tiara Tea will fund an additional 16 weeks of lessons, said Bishop.

Ceniyah and her brothers live with their maternal grandmother, Ida Anderson, and another   granddaughter, Alandra Adrine, 12, in Anderson’s home in Southwest  Memphis. Anderson turned her den into a bedroom for the boys, and Ceniyah shares her room. It’s cramped. “We have good days and stressful days,” she said.

Alandra is Ceniyah’s best friend, tends to her and takes her to the park. Ceniyah is a “girly-girl” who changes her clothes every time she spills a drop on them. At a recent visit to a dancewear store, she threw herself on the tutus, boas and other frilly things. But she also rough-houses with her brothers and dances with them to hip-hop music.

Her brothers are in summer school and making good grades, said Anderson. They will enter the 6th and 3rd grades in the fall. CJ loves computers and Cedric likes math. She hopes to interest them in swimming.

Ceniyah is still trailing glory from  Tiara Tea’s March 20 tea party in which she was crowned a princess. She wears her crown around the house. She shows everyone who visits the framed photo of herself from the party that appeared in the newspaper. She is already media-savvy and knows, when a camera appears, it is for her. She does not understand why.

Ceniyah is like her late mother, Marissa, in her love for music and dancing, said Anderson. Marissa  was a high-stepper majorette at 4 years old. When she was older, she joined her school’s marching band and learned to play three instruments. The family bought a piano for Ceniyah and individual women with Tiara Tea have offered her piano lessons as well as swimming lessons.

What Ceniyah is learning is not yet ballet, but more creative movement, said Janet Parke, Ballet Memphis School and Junior Company director. The children practice gross motor skills, simple concepts of movement, using their imaginations, working with props. Through ballet, dancers learn to express with their bodies feelings they can’t put into words, she said.

In one exercise, teachers Hannah Burton and Erika Holme paired the children and asked one to be the sculptor, physically changing the position of the other.

Ballet Memphis instructors Hannah Burton (center) and Erika Holme (second from right) teach the tiny dancers, including Ceniyah Dotson (second from left), to hold a pose. The class helps the children learn gross motor skills.

Here Ceniyah’s rough-housing paid off. While some girls were hesitant, she immediately took her partner’s head in her hands, gently tilted it to one side, and smiled. At the end of class, when the other students had left, Ceniyah raced back to the studio, coming out with a handful of colorful scarves she hoped to cart home. It didn’t work out. But the tiny dancer will almost certainly be back.

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