Spotlight Upon Unsung Heroes: Part One Walter Frank Cotton: Educator, Historian, Artist By Wilbur Thirkield Titus A hero, in my opinion, is a person who is deserving of respect and admiration for achievements, deeds, and/or characteristics one possesses. When I was thirteen years of age and went to Mexia, Texas to attend Dunbar High School, I met such a person in Walter Frank Cotton, the father of my class mate and buddy, Rod Ell Cotton. +Mr. Cotton treated me as if I were the biological brother of his sons, Rod Ell and Belva. I considered him a third daddy and in retrospect, I can see that, as a role model, he had a positive effect upon my life. He won my respect and admiration in the first place by being the man that he was. He was a man ... confident, reliable, generous, vibrant, jolly, kind, and sociable! Secondly, I was impressed by his many achievements. He was educated, had a big fine home, car, and print shop. He could speak well, write and paint. He had established his widowed mother in a comfortable home next door. He was an active member of Jones Chapel Methodist Church. He inspired me. He had achieved my dreams. Walter Frank Cotton (12/27/92-7/25/78) was the son of Jesse and Leila Cotton, descendants of slaves who had been enslaved upon the Stroud Plantation in Limestone County, about six miles west of Mexia. Walter grew up on the farm and did the usual tasks that farm boys perform, attended the Methodist church and community school, then went to college. Walter served in World War, I. He worked as a railroad mail sorter until he became an educator. He became recognized for his abilities to teach and to be an administrator. As such, he taught history at Woodland High School, Mexia, Texas, became its principal, and later became principal of Jackson High School of Corsicana, Texas. As an educator he served the entire populations where he was employed as a civic leader, resource person and friend. At one time, he published a newspaper and taught Rod Ell and me how to set print. Mr. Cotton, a self-taught painter, began painting in the late 1930's after he saw paintings in a Catholic Church in Chicago that impressed him. He created paintings for Jones Chapel Methodist Church and historic paintings for his schools. Mr. Cotton also wrote two books on local African American history, "History of the Negroes of Limestone County from 1860 to 1939" and "Missing Links." He illustrated the books with his own drawings and paintings. Mr. Cotton has works on exhibit in the Bob Bullock Texas State Museum of, Austin, Texas, and in the Webb Gallery of Waxahachie, Texas. His total body of work, totaling less than 30, was exhibited at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1970. Outside of the exhibition at SMU and occasional exhibits of his paintings in Limestone County, Cotton's work has remained relatively unknown. Mr. Cotton's largest painting, " Reading the Emancipation Proclamation on the Governeur Stroud Plantation, June 19, 1865" is included in "Spirited Jouneys" a traveling exhibit of 39 Texas Self Taught artists organized by the University of Texas. Mr. Cotton had a desire to preserve history which is shown in his paintings and histories. Because of failing health, he ceased to paint in 1969 and died at the age of 85 years in Mexia. Additional information can be found in the Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History, Austin, Texas, and the Webb Gallery, 209-211 W. Franklin, Waxahachie, TX 75165, 972-938-8085, webbart@onramp.net