Guest Blogger the Late Versie Lee Henderson
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| Versie Lee Henderson |
Anyway, my cousin Will gave me a copy of a memoir my mother wrote on the occasion of her brother, Will's father's death in 1994. It's such a beautiful testimony and family history I thought I would be remiss if I didn't share it. This is what she wrote:
HOW I REMEMBER HIM - MY BROTHER, WILBERT LONG, SR.
When driving around certain areas in St. Louis, it strikes me that so many of my friends, ones that I would call occasionally and keep in touch with, are gone forever. There was Ezra, Andy, Ronnie, Joan, Mom, Dad, to name a few, but the one best friend that I will never forget is my brother, Wilbert Long, Sr. You see, we were raised together, and lived so close to each other for the better part of our lives.
When we lived in Wynne Arkansas, I have only a few memories, but all good ones of when our mother, Almamie Long, and our brother, James Jr., would sometimes leave early in the morning to go out and work in the cotton fields for the sharecroppers. So all Wilbert and I were left to do was to play all day. (It was very safe there.) I remember once we played on a stack of sugar canes...we had fun eating as we played. After it rained, James, Wilbert and I would go outside and watch the water drain down the street, and try to catch the craw-deads, as we called them - now called cray fish.
I was not in school then, but I remember at one other time after it had rained and stormed they said lightening had hit the school building and it was partially burned. James and Wilbert went into the building to play, and James cut his heel on a piece of glass...later that evening we all waited in the doctor's office and watched him remove the glass from James' foot. It seemed like it hurt me, too.
I have a few wandering memories between those times in Arkansas and when we moved to St. Louis in 1941. We lived in a large boarding house when we first arrived, where we shared a real large refrigerator in the kitchen with other boarders. We kids had fun rambling through everybody's goodies, until we got caught.
We all attended Waring Elementary School which is still located off of Laclede Ave. on Compton. Our Uncle, Tommie Lee Gray, who happened to be near James' age, and our cousin, Jacqueline Laverne, also went there --- later, Jimmie, Alice, Carol and Frances came along...they were a little younger. Those were fun days. At lunch my friends and I went around the corner for greasy hamburgers or chili. We would buy dill pickles and put peppermint candy down inside the pickle and eat it all together. At playtime I remember the whole play yard was full and they played kick-volley ball. Those were the good old days.
As we all grew near the eighth grade, I remember that the girls began to form crushes on Wilbert and James. They would be very good to me in hopes that they would get to meet them. They would buy me large delicious apples or give me cookies and candy, etc. We were all separated in school when James was the first to graduate. He went to Vashon High School, then located at 2900 Laclede Ave., now known as Harris-Stowe Teacher's College. Wilbert followed behind James the next year, and I the following year. In the early 1950s James and Wilbert were recruited by Coach Jodie Bailey to play basketball. They were both over 6 feet tall. After I arrived at Vashon I attended a few of the games, but my brothers would not let their "little sister" follow them around. I found out in later years that I was very protected from some of their friends by my "big brothers".
On Saturday nights, without fail, all of the cousins, aunts, granpa (Poppa), grandma (Momma), all went to the movie, the Laclede Theater. We were not allowed in the Fox then. These were safe times when we walked to the movie and back home together. We saw Tarzan, Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Captain Marvel, etc. Once or twice a month this same group would go on picnics in Forest Park, which was safe then, too. All teenagers had to be in by the 9:00 curfew (whistle).
Later we moved from the boarding house on Lawton to 3409 Walnut St. We then met our lifelong friends, Mr. Jesse and Mrs. Gertrude Carter, and their three children, Jimmie, Velma and Clifton.
My father, James Long, Sr., worked for the Century Electric Co., and later for Sculling Steel Co., when we first came to St. Louis, until those jobs played out. He finally came to work for Missouri Pacific Railroad in the yard until he retired in the late 70s.
James and Wilbert graduated from Vashon...and again we were all separated when they both went to Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO. You guessed it, they played basketball again. It seems the years flew by...they both joined the R.O.T.C. --- James married Patricia Hardiman, Professor Hardiman's daughter, after graduation. Wilbert joined the Army --- James and Pat went to live in Kansas City...and later moved to Boston Massachusetts... I married Jesse Henderson while they were away. So it seemed that James had been gone since high school. Wilbert left the Army, met and married Ethel Shelton, a student nurse. A few years passed and we all lived in various locations until 1962, when we found that Wilbert and Ethel had bought a home at 4545 Fair Ave., and Jesse and I had bought a home at 4514 Harris, almost simultaneously. We lived back to back at opposite ends of the block, until Wilbert's death in 1994.
Anytime I needed a shoulder to lean on, some helpful advice, or just somebody to talk to, I could call on Wilbert, at home or at work. Wilbert's career, (25 years at the Juvenile Court), was a constant means for all of us to keep in touch. I think he would lunch with one of the kids at least once a week. Occasionally he and I would meet for lunch when we could. He always counseled family members as well as young criminals on how to become a better person in this society. I will always believe that the strain he endured in his capacity as Chief Juvenile Officer was extremely detrimental to his demise. He died within two months after he retired from the Court.
The fact that he could not discuss the cases with anyone outside of the office meant that he had to withhold speaking his thoughts to anyone about the carnage that crossed by him on a daily basis.
Wilbert was a happy-go-lucky individual by nature, and I just believe that as long as you have to hold anything in, bad or good, it is not good for the soul.
I have tried to justify his death in so many ways in my mind...one of them being the thought that he could have fallen from a stray assassin's bullet, or died by accident on the road, or in the air; either of which would have been just as hard for all of us to accept. As my brother James put it, I feel cheated in that we did not get a chance to enjoy doing things together after his retirement.
To put it lightly, just think, he missed seeing one of his idols, O.J. Simpson, being cast down and out from the throne he used to hold. Not to mention the floods, earthquakes, heat emergencies, as well as all of man's efforts to ruin the Earth's environment.
His son, Wilbert Jr. asked me when he died, is there anything Dad wanted us (kids) to do? I was unable to answer him then, but after a lot of thought, I remembered, and would like to pass this along to his children, mine and James'. He always strived to see that each child received a college education, and some of them did complete college. He wanted them to find mates and marry them, particularly if there were children involved. We all believe in the old fashioned way -- meet, marry and then have children; always respect your elders, as well as yourselves; do unto others as you would have them do to you.
I will close this with a statement our mother always kept on our presence, that is, "All things work together for good to them that love God."
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