Duke

article by LOU DAVENPORT | original oil painting by ADAM DAVENPORT

I recently saw a post and picture of our new Mayor, Friday Ellis, riding around with sanitation workers.  It brought to mind memories of my dad, and I knew it was about time I wrote a column about the colorful character that he was, and about some of the surprising, and out of the ordinary things that happened to him during his life.

Calvin Coolidge “Duke” Williams was the Head of Public Works for the City of Bastrop for over 25 years.  He fought every month with the City Council for raises or benefits for his workers, which me and my mama always got to hear about, along with all the other things he had going on.  He seriously loved his job, and the men that worked for him.  Remember when I mentioned out of the ordinary?  He actually died, from an aneurysm, in the Mayor’s office during a meeting.  Yeah, “out of the ordinary” and Duke went hand-in-hand.   

He was born into a family of eight children, who remained close up until they all passed away.  He loved his mom so much that he moved her in to live with us.  

I don’t even know how he got the nickname, “Duke,” but I bet I called him that more than “Dad.”  (It seems like everybody in my family has a nickname…or two!)

Being the 7th child, my grandmother must have been tired of naming kids, so, she let the doctor name him! What in the world? Guess who was president at the time?  You got it, Calvin Coolidge.  He remained the baby for a few more years until my Uncle “Punkin’” arrived, but his sisters continued to spoil him rotten, even when he was grown! 

Duke was born on January 1st, and I’ve always laughed and thought that he did always know how to make an entrance (and exit – gosh, can you IMAGINE being one of the people that was in that meeting that day?), and how he sure did start his mama’s year out right!  Every New Year’s Day, it was the custom, along with Easter, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas that everybody came to our house to celebrate his birthday!  I mean, he “laid claim” to a holiday to honor himself! 

He thought he was going to have a son, but instead, he got me!  I tried to be “son-like” by going hunting with him, and following him like a little puppy hunting dog.  That was okay until I saw a snake, and no way was I ever going back in the woods again!  I also tried to learn how to fish, but we saw an alligator up on Bussy Brake, and a bird pooped on my head.  I’m sure I acted very dramatic, but I am my father’s daughter.  I get it honest.  So, needless to say, my hunting and fishing acts were soon brought to a close.

I found out in later years, from some of the aunts, that he had slipped around and named me after one of his old girlfriends! What?  So, that’s how I got the “Mary Lou.” I’ve always just hated that name, even before knowing where it came from, so that’s why I’ve always gone by “Lou.”  

My daddy was a surveyor when I was little, before he went to work for the City of Bastrop.  He had a blonde crew cut, and stayed tan from working predominately outdoors.  My mom kept his shirts and khakis starched and ironed, because he liked being a “sharp dressed man,” even if that involved him wading around in the swamps around Bonita.  I remember that he wore big work boots, and even though they were nearly as tall as I was, I’d always try to walk around in them.   

His work truck was a big, black Chevrolet.  One time, while playing (where I wasn’t supposed to), I discovered that there were machetes in the bed of that truck.  I had to give myself up by letting my whereabouts be known, but I wanted to know more about what I’d found.  Apparently, it was fairly common for surveyors to come upon all different kinds of snakes while working out in the field. He had a big shoe box full of rattles, and he loved to show them off and scare all of the cousins. I guess those machetes did come in handy!

Even after he quit surveying, he continued being that “sharp dressed man.”  He loved shopping for the latest menswear at Jerry’s Men’s Shoppe, on the corner across from the Courthouse.  Every Christmas, one of my aunts would give him a gift certificate to Haneline’s, down here in Monroe.  That was like giving him a million dollars. When white patent leather belts and shoes became a thing, I think my mom had to reel him in about having too much of either of those.  Whatever their compromise was, he loved wearing this one pair of brown shoes that had white patent leather on the tops of them.  They made me cringe! Then, he found those stylized polyester shirts that came in all these wild prints.  He had several of those hideous things, and I swear one of them had naked women in the design.  Again, CRINGE!

Duke loved to go out to eat.  He was the first to introduce me to raw oysters at The Mohawk.  He dared me to try one, and to his surprise, I loved them!  Still do, and right now, I’d love to have a couple of dozen.  He also thought it was big fun to drive to Hamburg, Arkansas to eat fried fish.  Although it wasn’t always my favorite food, or a place I might have picked to go – because he took us to quite a few questionable establishments over the years with Duke, you just had to grin and bear it.

Vacations consisted of him driving and NOT stopping at any of the places that any of us would have wanted to go.  I think he just liked driving his big cars, which he always had, and didn’t really care much about any of the “stops” along the way.  He actually bought a PINK Nash Rambler station wagon just to haul his bird dogs around.  I loved that car.  It looked like a rolling, pink Easter Egg! His very last car was a big block-long Buick Electra 225, or as he called it, “a deuce and a quarter.” (Random Trivia: There is a song by Keith Richards, Levon Helm, Scotty Moore, and D.J. Moore called Deuce and a Quarter.  “A deuce and a quarter ain’t no Cadillac.”)

My dad and I had a complicated relationship.  We didn’t always see eye to eye, and we’d argue.  With both of us being hard-headed and very much alike, it was basically like having an argument with yourself.  His favorite sayings were, “No, just because I said so,” and, “Don’t do as I do, do as I say do.”  Oh, how I hated that, but truth be told, the older I get, the more I find myself acting like him.  I sure look like him.  I try to NOT act like him, but my kids love to call me out when I do.  I like to tell them that at least I don’t have a special glass, a special plate, and a special spoon like he did!  

After my mama died, he went on a wild cleaning spree and threw out all the old Christmas ornaments, and a few toys I had left at home that really meant a lot to me.  After hearing me whine about them so much over the years, my daughter, Carolyn, found an old box of those same kind of ornaments at a garage sale, and bought them for me. They were even in an old “Pet Milk” box, and to this day, they are some of my most prized possessions.  (Matter of fact, as I’m writing this, I can see them hanging on my tree.)

Duke could be hard-headed, self-centered, and obstinate… but he could also be the kindest, most soft hearted person you’d ever meet.  He always had time for his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and his friends.  When it came to his department of workers, he considered them family. If anybody needed anything, he was there.  I loved him even when he made me more angry than anyone in the world could.

When he died, the funeral home was standing room only. When I walked out to get in the car to go to the cemetery, the tears started, because the entire parking lot was filled with his workers!  I had the pleasure of hugging many of them, many that I hadn’t seen in years, and getting to share memories and stories of him with them.  They all told me the same thing, “I loved your daddy.”  So did I. 

“My daddy was a heck of a man. He loved us all and we knew it, though he showed it in a very funny way. For most of the time, he was a-cussin’ and fussin,’ when he said what he had to say.”  – Gladys Knight & The Pips