News, Citizen Profile, Lewis William Humphries, LaSalle Parish, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Submitted by: Craig Franklin of The Jena Times, Jena, LaSalle Parish, La. Wednesday, October 3, 2001, page 8C A Times-Signal Feature "Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute Lewis W. Humphries - Citizen Profile This Jena man is a people person and always will be Lewis William Humphries is a people person – always has been, always will be. His demeanor and charm has warmed the hearts of many throughout the years, and brought smiles to everyone he came in contact with. "My parents taught us to love everyone," he said. "We were brought up to not hate anyone, even the blacks, during a time when blacks were hated by many." This genuine love for his fellow man was reflected every day he went to work. Many know Mr. Humphries from the years he spent at LaSalle State Bank in Jena, working his way up the ranks from teller to Senior Vice-President when he retired. Born in Grayburg, Texas, just outside of Beaumont, on September 2, 1911, Mr. Humphries this year celebrated his 90th birthday. His parents, James Alfred and Annie Elizabeth Humphries, eventually had 8 children, 6 boys and 2 girls. Today, only Mr. Humphries and one of his sisters are still living. "My dad was a woods foreman for a mill," he said. "We lived in Texas for a while, then moved to Good Pine, then back to Texas, and finally came back to Good Pine sometime before I started school." Mr. Humphries started school at Good Pine when he was eight years old. He remembers several things about school during those days that are quite different than school today. One of those was the methods of punishment. He said he remembers one of the ways children were punished was the teacher would draw a circle on the blackboard and the child had to put his or her nose in the circle. While this seemed to deter much of the foolishness, the ultimate punishment came from old fashioned "whippings" delivered by the hands of teachers. Mr. Humphries recalled a cloakroom inside the classroom, where the teacher would take a misbehaving student and whip them with a switch, "giving as many licks as she wanted." He graduated from Trout-Good Pine High School in 1930, at the age of 19. For the next three years he attended college at Louisiana Tech, but was forced to quite when the Great Depression hit. "Back then, I had to work my way through college," he said. "Believe it or not, I was studying to become a dentist, but the depression hit and I could not finish." By this time, his parents had moved to Pollock where they bought a 40-acre farm. Mr. Humphries moved to Pollock and worked on the farm with them for a while during the depression, until he came back to Jena and started working at Bill's Café. The café was located on the bottom floor of the Melba Hotel, now known as the Wright building. It was during this time in 1938, that he met a high school girl by the name of Ruby "Mutt" Richardson. Mr. Humphries still recalls going to basketball games and seeing her play, and also sitting on her parents' front porch swinging, which is what most of their "dates" consisted of. On December 31 of that same year, the two were married. Mr. Humphries quit working at the café and held various types of employment over the next seven years. He worked at a refinery at Gulf Oil in Port Arthur, Louisiana, and in 1940 he became a Louisiana State Trooper, serving under Governor Sam Jones. While with the state police, he worked in Baton Rouge, Alexandria and Monroe. "I was only a state trooper for three years," he said. "That's all it took for me to find out being a cop wasn't for me." Mr. Humphries said two events happened while working with the state police that allowed him to come to that conclusion. The first involved the beating of a woman by fellow troopers, who wanted him to take a turn at beating her. He refused and the event left a bitter taste. The final straw came one night when he had to work a car wreck, where several teenagers were killed. "That's when I knew it wasn't for me," he said. "I got out because it was just too rough for me." When WWII broke out, Mr. Humphries enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was assigned to shore patrol duty from New York, Baltimore St. Augustine, Miami, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Egmont Key, Florida. Mostly, he says, he worked out of St. Augustine Florida, near Jacksonville. After receiving his honorable discharge in August 1945, he returned to Jena where he was employed on August 20th with LaSalle State Bank as teller and bookkeeper at the age of 34. Mr. Humphries remembers that first day on the job in 1945, with a very different downtown Jena. "When I first went to work we were all standing there drinking coffee that morning looking outside," he said. "Now remember, this was before Jena ever had a stock law, and cows, hogs, all animals just run up and down the streets. Mr. Ralph Stephenson was my boss and he told me it was my job to come in early every morning and shovel all the manure up from the sidewalks in front of the bank. Well, I started to just get my hat and leave . . .I never did sweep any of that stuff up." While his job did not include sweeping the front of the bank, it did consist of working one of the teller windows inside the bank, a job he loved and a job he was good at. It is said that all of the widow women and most elderly women in Jena would not let anyone but Mr. Humphries wait on them. Many times, a long line would form in front of Mr. Humphries' window, even though other tellers might not have anyone in front of them. "Daddy would always baby them," said daughter Ruby Humphries. "He would hug them and kiss them, and really make them feel special." Nearly everyone in and around Jena remembers Mr. Humphries working at the bank. Not only was he one of the kindest and hard-working men, he was also very proficient in his job. Sammy Franklin, publisher of The Jena Times, remembers Mr. Humphries working at the bank, and how he too always tried to get in Mr. Humphries' teller line. "I remember one thing that impressed me," Franklin said, "and that was he could just reach and grab a stack of one dollar bills and tell you exactly how much it was before he even counted it. He had worked handling money for so long that he knew how much it was by simply holding it." Of course, Franklin did not arrive in Jena until 1967, when Mr. Humphries had been working at the bank for over twenty years. "One day I went in and needed fifty one dollar bills for the newspaper office," the publisher said. "Well, Mr. Humphries just reaches in and grabs a stack of money and said ‘Here you go, $50'. He then counted the money out and sure enough, it was $50 exactly." Mr. Humphries and his wife built a house right behind Mrs. Ruby's parents, Dr. and Mrs. Frank L. Richardson in Jena in 1947. The two-story house cost them $5,000, and he still resides in the house today after 54 years. Dr. Richardson was a dentist who served Jena for 50 years. Mr. Humphries remembers many times driving his father-in-law to his office in the middle of the night to pull a tooth for someone in pain. "He had a big bell outside his house and whenever he needed a ride to his office at night, he would just ring that bell and I'd get up and take him," Mr. Humphries said. "I took him a many a times in the middle of the night to go pull a tooth." One of the things that he learned from Dr. Richardson was how to treat others less fortunate. "It didn't matter to him if they didn't have any money to pay him, he would still pull their teeth or do whatever needed to be done," he said. "Many times they would pay him in chickens, eggs, or produce from their garden. He never turned anybody down." In that two-story house, the Humphries would raise two daughters and one son. Sandy Howard was born March 11, 1943, Bill Humphries was born October 25, 1948, and Ruby Humphries was born June 1, 1952. Today, he has ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. As the years passed by, Mr. Humphries would work his way up through the ranks at the bank. He started out as teller and bookkeeper, then assistant cashier, then cashier and vice-president, and finally he was promoted to Senior Vice- President, a position he would hold until he retired. On his birthday in 1983, his wife of 45 years passed away, ending what he called "a wonderful married life together."Mr. Humphries also keeps a record of his dearest friends inside his checkbook, noting the year they were born and the year they passed away. Some of the names include: Dr. Guy Campbell (life-long school friend) 7/25/1913-1/8/1969, age 56; Slim Butler 9/25/1893-8/4/1961, age 68; Ralph Stephenson 12/22/1901-10/1/1977, age 76; Al M. Cobb 8/7/1897-8/27/1987, age 90; Dallas Wright 5/11/1917-5/10/1988, age 71; and of course, his wife, who passed away when she was only 64 years-old. When he retired from LaSalle State Bank in 1986, Mr. Humphries said that he had made some mighty good friends in the bank during the 41 years he worked there. "T. (Slim) Butler was president when I started to work here, and I had the pleasure of having such a fine man as my boss for only 16 years as he passed away at an early age of 68," he said during an interview at his retirement reception in 1986. "Ralph W. Stephenson succeeded Butler as president, having been our vice- president and cashier," he continued. "We all loved Mr. Ralph for he also was a great person to work with. Mr. Ralph retired in 1975 and died two years later." "Then one of my fellow workers and close friends, Dallas W. Wright, became president," he said. "Dallas retired in late 1982 and Murl Windham was named president, until mid-1984 when Earl Doughty became president. Earlier this year (1986) Richard Broussard was named president of the bank. It was my pleasure to have worked under these six fine presidents. "One of the things that made working with Mr. Humphries such a delight was not only his kindness toward others, but also his cheerful disposition. For many who worked with him during his 41 years at the bank, they remember his smile and his ability to play practical jokes on people. Often, the practical jokes would be turned on him as well, and he loved that just as much as pulling them on others. And then there were the many times throughout his life that funny events just happened to him, without the aid of any practical jokester. "I remember one time I walked down from the bank to the post office to get the mail," he said. "On the way back, I walked up the alley that goes behind Kinner and Stevens Funeral Home, and saw that there were two men, one white and one black, unloading coffins.""Well, as I was walking up that alley in the early morning light, I was just watching them, when the black fellow looked up, saw me and started screaming," he continued. "He jumped down off that truck, kept screaming as loud as he could, and took off running. It scared me so bad, I turned around and ran the other direction, but I knew I thought I saw the white man laughing during all of this.""It turns out, I later found out, that this white fellow had been telling this man ghost stories as they were unloading the coffins, and by the time I came walking up the black fellow was at his wits in. He thought I was a ghost, and that's the reason he started screaming. He really was scared to death," he said. "You know, they told me later that that black man never did come back to work at the funeral home. I guess he left running and never stopped." Mr. Humphries also remembers another funny "true" story that happened one day in the bank to a co-worker."This is a true story," he said. "Inside the vault at the bank we used to have a big mirror on one wall, opposite the safety deposit drawers. Well, one day Fred Mosley was inside the vault and was doing something at the safety deposit drawers, when out of the corner of his eye he saw someone inside the vault with him. What he was actually seeing was himself through the mirror, but he didn't know that.""Well, he started moving inside the vault. He'd go forward, then backward, forward, then backward again," he continued. "Finally, after several minutes of trying to get out of the person's way, Fred said, ‘Now listen, if you'll stand still I'll go around you!' talking to the other person in the vault, which he didn't know was his own reflection. We all laughed as hard as we could over that."Today, that mirror that used to be inside the LaSalle State Bank's vault, now hangs in Mr. Humphries' living room. Mr. Humphries is one of those men who never throws anything away. From checkbooks, to receipts ranging from his house to electricity bills, nearly everything he has ever purchased he has a record of the transaction. He also keeps newspapers, specifically The Jena Times, and other memorabilia. Having been retired now for 15 years, Mr. Humphries still enjoys some of the same things he has all of his life. He still works as a Public Notary, something he has done since 1948. He said he loves visiting with people, and doing his notary work allows him the opportunity to do just that. He also enjoys watching his favorite television show, The Price Is Right, riding around with his chauffer (daughter Ruby), and every week he can't wait to get his copy of The Jena Times. Throughout his life he has been presented with many awards and honors, but perhaps the greatest award of all goes back to the very core of who Mr. Lewis Humphries really is. The most joyful and satisfying feeling he has comes from the many memories in his mind, memories of making so many people smile, so many people feel good, so many people feel special. That was God's gift to Mr. Humphries, and throughout his entire life he has used that gift to lift the hearts of everyone he met. Whether they were white, black, rich or poor, Mr. Humphries treated them all the same. He also would love to hear from some of his old friends and notes that during this time in his life, visiting is still one of the greatest gifts you can give. þÿ ÕÍÕœ. "— +,ù®0 ø h p „ Œ " œ ¤ ¬ ´ ¼ Ä Ø ' Version 6.0 é 7 Ò< Ï Lewis W Title ! " # $ % þÿÿÿ' ( ) * + , - þÿÿÿ/ 0 1 2 3 4 5 þÿÿÿ7 8 9 : ; < = þÿÿÿýÿÿÿ@ þÿÿÿþÿÿÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿR o o t E n t r y ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ À F W@ bGÁ B 1 T a b l e ÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿ & W o r d D o c u m e n t ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ "J S u m m a r y I n f o r m a t i o n ( ÿÿÿÿ . 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