James-Micheal Marshall’s deep, restful sleep is interrupted by a heavenly aroma filtering from the kitchen into the guest bedroom of a West Lawrence residence he has been calling home.

“Micheal : breakfast is ready!” are the words that, combined with the smells of sizzling bacon, sausage and eggs, have served as a wake-up call the past four months for the 45-year-old former Kansas University basketball player.

He’s back in town accepting the hospitality of Darnelle Manning, the mother of KU assistant coach Danny Manning, as he completes the final 17 hours toward his college degree.

“I get up, and she has the newspaper ready for me. When I leave, it’s, ‘Have a nice day.’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?”’ said Shelbyville, Ky., native Marshall, known as Mike Marshall during the 1983-84 season, his one season at KU.

“It’s like I get to relive my childhood because my mom makes me breakfast and sends me off to school. The only difference is now I don’t have to get on a yellow bus. I drive myself to class.”

Marshall – who has worked as a writer and director in Los Angeles and New York the past 17 years and also has a loving biological mother, Mary B. Marshall, back in Kentucky – is so grateful for Mom No. 2 he decided to contact the Journal-World and surprise modest Ms. Manning with this tribute story on Mother’s Day.

“I’m amazed at how well she has taken care of me. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve gotten all A’s so far,” said Marshall, who will graduate May 20 with a degree in human development family life. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. She is responsible for my success.”

Darnelle Manning, who works as a research paraprofessional educator at Quail Run School, has maintained contact with Marshall since the 1983-84 season, when the Central Wyoming Junior College transfer averaged 3.3 points in 8.6 minutes a game for the 22-10 Jayhawks, who were coached by Larry Brown and assisted by Danny’s father, Ed Manning, who is Darnelle’s ex-husband.

“Ms. Manning talks to all the former players,” Marshall said. “When I was here (one year before transferring to McNeese State), she made sure we had Thanksgiving. She’d cook for us, talk to us all the time. She was like the aunt of the family.”

Last winter, while Marshall was mourning the unexpected death of his father, he spoke to Darnelle Manning and mentioned he’d like to return to KU and finish his degree as a tribute to his dad.

Ms. Manning was receptive to the idea of an ex-player landing his sheepskin.

So Marshall asked for one favor.

“I said, ‘Ms. Manning, can I come stay with you a week until I find an apartment?’ She said yes,” Marshall explained.

“I came to find out I needed a year lease even though I was only going to be here four months. Then it was like, maybe I could get a six-month lease, but there was no garage. I’ve been living in L.A. I told my girlfriend, ‘I don’t know if I could be anywhere without a garage where it’s brutal in January.”’

So Ms. Manning, sensing some angst, came to the rescue.

“She said, ‘You know what? It’s going to be really stressful for you. You need to concentrate on your school. Why don’t you just stay here with me?’

“That was one of the happiest days of my life,”’ Marshall said.

He arrived for classes in January armed with just a pile of clothes. Ms. Manning has taken care of all the accommodations.

Since then, Marshall has wondered where he can locate the paperwork to nominate Ms. Manning for national “Mother of the Year.”

“I told you about breakfast. Lunch : she makes me a turkey or ham sandwich, chicken pasta. She puts it in Tupperware for me,” Marshall said, holding his lunch basket. “I told her I like hotdogs. She makes me hotdogs. She makes me gourmet dishes. She can really cook, and everybody knows it.

“For dinner she makes me chicken, meat. I hate okra. She makes it where I get seconds. She makes squash, which I’d never eaten before, and now I get seconds. She has me eating everything I didn’t like to eat.

Former Kansas University basketball player James-Micheal Marshall, right, has been touched by the hospitality shown by Darnelle Manning, left, the mother of ex-Jayhawk Danny Manning. Marshall stayed with Ms. Manning this semester as he completes requirements for his degree in human development family life.

“If she is going to one of her grandkid’s games or something, she’ll call and tell me to make sure and grab something for dinner.

“It’s not just cooking. She’s helped me deal with my father’s death,” he continued. “I get reminded of it sometimes by the smallest things like somebody smoking a cigar. When I’m down, she picks me up. She does it all out of the goodness of her heart. She wants nothing in return.”

Nonetheless, Marshall has tried to show his appreciation in tiny ways.

One weekend, Marshall and his girlfriend, Holly, who was in Lawrence on a weekend visit from L.A., took Ms. Manning for a nice dinner downtown. The two, plus their four children, plan to show Manning the sights of Los Angeles sometime this summer.

Marshall, however, knows meals and sightseeing on the West Coast won’t be enough to repay Ms. Manning for all she has done.

“I would say if the man upstairs, God, Yahweh, whatever you like to call him, Allah, would describe what a mother should be, all the attributes would add up to who she is,” Marshall said. “She does it because it’s who she is. It’s in her nature. She doesn’t have to try to be good. She is good.

“All the stuff she does for me, you can’t act it or fake it. It’s real. You can’t be this nice, this sweet. The best way I can say it is, ‘Every woman who has a baby is not a mother. There are women who never had kids who are great mothers. Then there are women who are great mothers that continue to mother people.’ That’s Ms. Manning.”

Marshall plans to make her proud by putting his degree to good use.

“I’d love to write and direct but continue to try to get a masters and doctorate,” said Marshall, who has been student-teaching 4- and 5-year-olds at Educare in the Dole Building.

James-Micheal Marshall - he went by Mike Marshall in those days - in his Kansas uniform in the 1983-84 season.

He directed and produced a video for the late Tupac, who died in 1996. Also, he was a director for the animated show, “Liberty’s Kids.”

“I’d like to be a psychologist. I want to work with minority children,” he said. “One thing I know they don’t know how to do is release their anger. They don’t have a creative outlet to release it. I write pretend letters when I get mad, pretend stories. You get rid of the anger so it doesn’t fester. A lot of kids can’t get rid of it and do some violent things.”

Another option for Marshall is to coach high school basketball back at The Brentwood School in Los Angeles. He has tentative plans to tutor his nephew, a 6-foot-4 high school freshman, who may move from Kentucky to Los Angeles to play for his uncle’s team. Coincidentally, his nephew was in town for last week’s Jayhawk Invitational basketball tournament, stayed with Ms. Manning and bonded instantly.

“At the end of the stay he wanted to buy her a card and flowers. He said, ‘I need to pick out the card. If you pick it out, she’ll know it’s from you, not me,”’ Marshall said. “I don’t know what they talked about, but she always says it’s good for kids to talk to caring adults. She made a big impact on him. She inspired him. She inspires me.”

Marshall requested the J-W not contact Ms. Manning for today’s tribute to keep the once-in-lifetime Mother’s Day surprise.

Danny Manning, however, was willing to chime in about his mother.

“I have been very fortunate and blessed to have her in my life as my mother – very blessed to have my father as well,” Danny said. “My mother has been there for me a long time like the rest of my family. She is a wonderful lady with a great heart. I’m happy she is around and gets a chance to spend some time with Mike.”

What about Marshall?

“Mike loves anything free,” Manning joked with a big smile.