Biographies: Dr. Andrew Willie Radescich, 1981, 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: July 22, 1981 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Dr. A. W. Radescich Celebrates 100th Birthday Dr. A. W. Radescich, 1109« Berry Street, Pineville, Louisiana celebrated his 100th year birthday Tuesday, July 7, 1981, at his residence with family and friends. He received many cards of greeting, telephone calls, and gifts on this anniversary of his first century on earth. Birthday cake, punch, cookies, and party "goodies" were served to those who attended. Andrew Willie Radescich, this long-time former Winnfield resident and Winn Parish native, was born July 7, 1881 to Andrew Jackson and Nancy Rogers Parsons Radescich in a double-pen house of hand-hewn pine logs on the Radescich family farm one and a half miles northwest of Tannehill. He is known to his many friends as "Doc" or "Tony", the former nickname acquired from his practice of dentistry and the latter from a mistake in the ethnic pronunciation of his surname. At the age of 17, in 1898, Will Radescich entered and attended Mount Lebanon College at Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, a few miles south of Gibsland, this college was moved some years later to Pineville, Louisiana and eventually became the present Louisiana College. Then in October, 1905, he entered Atlanta Dental College in Atlanta, Georgia where he completed requirements for a D. D. S. Degree, dental degree, in April 1908. He began his practice of dentistry in Dodson, Louisiana in 1908 shortly following his graduation from dental college. In the fall of 1908 he and Miss Lydia Susan Talton were married and they lived one year in Dodson. In March of 1909, they moved to Winnfield where he began his practice and reared a family of five children, Andrew Will, Jr., Elsie Irene (Bidder), Louise May (Weezie), Nancy Virginia (Ginia), and Lydia Sue. Over the years, Dr. Radescich served his community, parish, and state, being elected city councilman in 1912, school board member in 1914, and to a four year term as State Representative from Winn Parish in 1920. Doc Radescich joined the Masonic Lodge No. 289 in Dodson, Louisiana July 18, 1908 and transferred his membership on June 11, 1911 where he served as Worshipful Master in 1918. Also he is a member of the Scottish Rite in Shreveport, having joined that organization in 1960, and he is a member of El Karubah Shrine of Shreveport. Dr. Radescich practiced dentistry over sixty years, beginning in April 1908 in Dodson, Louisiana and continuing until October 1968 when he retired in Winnfield at age 87. His professional affiliation included membership in the Eighth District Dental Association and he served as vice president of that organization in 1951. On April 30, 1972, the Louisiana Dental Association presented him with a 50 year Tribute Award for fifty years of dental practice. He remains a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Winnfield where he formerly served as an Elder. He served as chairman of the Building Committee when the Sulphur Timber and Lumber Company's former office building was donated by the Hunt family, and renovated and improved for a First Presbyterian Church building. Always an imaginative, colorful, and entertaining storyteller, Doc's son, Will, Jr., warmly recalls many of his father's stories. During his growing up and first work years, one of Doc's most amusing tales was about a first work experience. Doc told of working as a teenager in a survey crew as a water boy with the L&A (Louisiana & Arkansas) Railroad, between Winnfield and Goldonna. The water had to be carried in buckets from farm wells. In order to save himself a long return walk through the woods, Doc found a hollow stump full of clear rainwater. He transported that as long as it lasted. The men in the crew commented that the water tasted "of the curb". Doc told them the folks at the farm house had a new wooden curbed well and no one doubted him. Also he told of the times when the rodman on the survey crew would set a transit turn point on top of a "yellow jacket" nest in the ground. When the surveyor, an Englishman, set the instrument over this point, disturbing the "little yellow bugs", the stinging would begin, much to the mischievous merriment of the crew members. In his young years, Doc enjoyed playing baseball and Will, Jr., recalls a very humorous incident related by his father about his college years. Tony Radescich was catcher and captain of the baseball team while attending Atlanta Dental College. One day they were playing a game during which the coach gave a bunt signal. Well, Tony saw this perfect strike coming right down the middle of the plate. He drew back and knocked a home run. After running the bases, the coach called him over and inquired, "Did you get my bunt signal?" Radescich replied, "Yes, I got your bunt signal but I just couldn't resist that fine strike down the middle." For that, the coach said, "You are out of the game and will 'warm the bench' for a while!" Tony Radescich missed many games that season. The only reason he was finally called back to catch was because Atlanta had a "fireball" pitcher and Tony was the only catcher who could handle him. The one of Will Jr.'s most amusing recollections of his father's hobbies has to do with Dr. Radescich's disastrous experience while attempting to make himself a personal supply of homebrew back in the Prohibition era in the 1920s and 1930s. While the exact details are best not revealed here, Will, Jr., now amusingly recalls that Doc, Miss Lydia, and all the Radescich children had some difficulty 'living down' with the neighbors and townspeople that unfortunate undertaking by the good doctor. On February 4, 1967, four and a half years after the September 1962 death of his wife, Lydia Susan Talton Radescich, the mother of his children, Dr. Radescich married Mrs. Alma Jeanette White Wilson and he and the new Mrs. Radescich moved their residence to Pineville, through the splendid devoted and loving care of Alma Radescich, Doc Radescich is enjoying to the fullest the latter years of his life.