Biographies: Whitey Jackson, 1958, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: March 6, 1958 Winn Parish Enterprise April 3, 1958 Winn Parish Enterprise (H. B. Bozeman article reprinted with permission granted me by Mr. Estes Bozeman) Winn Parish As I Have Known It by H. B. Bozeman Articles 74 & 78 Unusual Characters of Winnfield Whitey Jackson Along about 1905 Whitey Jackson was a wandering hobo that stopped off here in Winnfield and got a job working around the Albert Long livery stable. Here he stayed for the rest of his life which ended only a few years ago. Whitey Jackson loved horses above everything else and for years watched over the care of all the Albert Long livery stable horses with as much concern as a good mother does her children. Until the "jitneys" put the livery stables out of business many traveling salesmen covered their territory with livery stable rigs which included the driver. These traveling salesmen sometimes kept the liver stable rigs for as much as a month at a time. Back in those days, I think I can positively state that Whitey Jackson was the most popular livery stable driver in all north Louisiana among the traveling salesmen. During my high school days I found out a lot about Whitey Jackson. To my surprise, I learned he was a graduate from the University of Tennessee and was a member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Tennessee. Huey Long and I often went to Whitey for help in our high school studies. He could make the most difficult problem seem clear and simple of solution. Briefly here is Whitey's life story. About the time his father died he graduated from the University and inherited $125,000. Whitey's love of horses took him to the race tracks where he thought he could always pick the winner. He said in a little over a year he found himself broke and the only way he could stay around a race track was taking a job in the racing stables as a "swipe". Then race tracks only operated in the summertime and when winter came on he started "drifting" south as a hobo and landed here in Winnfield. Two or three years before Whitey Jackson died here his sister and her husband, a wealthy Knoxville, Tennessee businessman, came here in a big automobile with a private chauffeur and tried to persuade Whitey to return home with them where they could provide him a home with everything he might need. A day or so after I saw Whitey his sister and brother in law eating in Minnie Breedlove's Restaurant, I met up with Whitey and asked him why he did not go with them. He looked across the court square and said: "There are a lot of reasons, I been here too long. Winnfield will be my home until the Master calls me to a better one." From Article 78 Sion Jenkins Tells One On Whitey Jackson Sion says back in the lush times of the livery stable days when Whitey Jackson was working for the Albert Long stable he, like many other men here with no apron string restraint, occasionally took off for one of the larger Louisiana cities for what was generally referred to as a "spree". After being gone for several days, Whitey wired Albert Long "Wire Ticket- Coming Home". Promptly on receipt of Whitey's telegram Albert Long wired Whitey what he thought was enough money to get him back to Winnfield. The next morning a telegram from Whitey with the same wording came and Albert Long again wired Whitey the same amount of money. The third morning there was the same worded telegram from Whitey. This time Albert Long did as Whitey's telegrams had requested. He had the railroad wire Whitey a ticket to Winnfield. The following morning Whitey showed up at the livery stable all smiles. When Albert Long asked why did he not come home when he wired the money the first two times, Whitey replied, "I never wired for money, but a ticket home. I thought you knew I could not drink a railroad ticket."