Stories. Everybody has one!
"You never know what kind of story you'll find in an old envelope!"
I have mentioned before that sometimes I wake up in the "wee hours" and my mind starts going and going and I may as well get up because I'm not going back to sleep. So it was at 3:30 this morning. By 4:15 I knew it was hopeless so I got up and turned on the coffee pot.
While waiting for it to brew, I emptied a large manilla envelope onto the counter. Yesterday we had a gathering of some railroad retirees at a local coffee house in Baton Rouge. This retirement group was formed in the mid 1980's and last year the founding member passed away in his 90's. His wife is a precious and sweet lady of almost 88 years. She decided to give up the home they had shared for over 50 years and move into a retirement center. Cleaning out her home has been difficult and emotional for her....but she says "I'll get through it!"
Being the wife of the founding member, she has been active all of these years in trying to keep the group of railroad retirees who call themselves members of "The Big R Club" vital and involved. She had some handmade birthday cards and some clippings that she wanted to give me....I am currently the secretary of the club. So I emptied the envelope she had handed me yesterday and was looking through it. One of the clippings was yellowed and torn. The article was entitled "The Whistle That Was Bill Casey". I couldn't find any date on the portion of newspaper called "The Dixie Guide". The author, Willis T. Guild, wrote about a railroad engineer by the name of Bill Casey and the way he blew a train whistle.
"When properly played (for Bill Casey actually played it; he didn't just blow it) it could make delicious shivers run up and down your spine. It had a haunting lonesomeness that could bring tears to your eyes. The best effect was achieved if the listener were from one to five miles away."
Mr. Guild went on to tell how popular Bill Casey became as he brough Old No. 14 along the rails between Gulfport and Jackson, MS. He described farmers coming to their porches, often in long night gowns, all with a lantern to signal for Casey to blow his famous whistle. Or the junior college at Brooklyn, MS, where the flashing of the dormitory lights was an understood signal--"blow it good."
As I stood in my kitchen in the dim glow of my under-cabinet lighting and waited for the coffee to complete it's dripping in those pre-dawn minutes this morning, I held that tattered, yellow newspaper clipping in my hands and wondered who was this man? When was this? Whatever happened to him?
So, coffee finally in hand, I turned on my laptop in my little office and Googled "Bill Casey". I Googled "Gulf and Ship Island Railroad", "The Dixie Guide" and even "Willis T. Guild" but I didn't find out much. In reading the article for a second time I did notice that the author first became acquainted with Bill Casey in 1921 even though he was familar with the sound of the whistle songs earlier that that. At the close of the story, Mr. Guild states that "Today Bill Casey lives on Thirtieth Avenue here in Gulfport. At eighty-four years of age he is as active and hearty as a man of forty years." I still had no clue how old the clipping was.
My "Googling" did finally result in an article on the "Spanish American War at Ocean Springs" 1898??? I decided to look through the article because Ocean Springs, MS, is very near Gulfport on the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, I found reference to a Corporal Will Casey (1875-1960), and with the 1960 death year was able to find William H. Casey buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Ocean Springs, MS. Birth: August 24, 1875. Death: August 12, 1960. 12 days shy of his 85th birthday. The article gave a brief bio of Will Casey and it included the following: Casey became a railroad engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad in 1903. He lived at Gulfport and was ......
Sounds like I had found my man and since the train whistle article stated that Mr. Casey was 84 and living in Gulfport, I am assuming the newspaper was from 1959. That was all I could learn. But I still didn't know anything much about the man or why there was a clipping in this envelope. Perhaps it was just because it was "railroad related".
Later in the morning I called the sweet little widow lady that had given me the envelope. When I started to describe the story of a man with a talent for blowing the train whistle she immediately said "Oh! Bill Casey! Yes...my mother dated him for 10 or 12 years when I was a girl! I didn't know that clipping was in there!!"
Now I will tell you "the rest of the story." Mary Elizabeth (the widow) was raised by her mother, who was born in 1902. Her mother was married to a man 22 years her senior who actually died shortly before Mary was born. When Mary was about 10 years old she and her mother were living with her grandparents in Jackson, MS, where the mother met, and began dating, the dapper gentleman, Bill Casey. Mr. Casey was 29 years older than her mother and would have been in his 60's. (Although from the train whistle article said, I figure he must have looked and acted much younger) He had never been married...and was working the run between Gulfport and Jackson, MS. He would be on each end over one night. It was easy for me to imagine that a man who liked to make his train whistle talk and sing, must have been a fun character indeed. Mary remembers many fine and happy outings this little group made together...boating in Oceans Springs, MS....dining in nice restaurants. She remembers Mr. Casey as a very kind and dignified man....and always very properly attired. But...her mother had no desire to marry and eventually the relationship ended. Mary did not know what ever became of her mothers "beaux". Today I was able to tell her that he apparently lived, in good health for another 10-15 years after he and her mother parted ways.
After our telephone conversation I read the article one more time. The author of the train whistle story said "My folks lived in North Jackson near Millsaps College. On still cold nights, I have heard Casey's song faintly as he left Florence (11 miles south of Jackson), heard it grow and swell in volume, up and down, wailing, screaming, laughing, singing--right up to the Jackson city limits."
And I was able to picture a fairly young widow and her young daughter listening in eager anticipation as Casey rode Old Number 14 into town."
You just never know what stories you will find in an old envelope.....if you look!
I have mentioned before that sometimes I wake up in the "wee hours" and my mind starts going and going and I may as well get up because I'm not going back to sleep. So it was at 3:30 this morning. By 4:15 I knew it was hopeless so I got up and turned on the coffee pot.
While waiting for it to brew, I emptied a large manilla envelope onto the counter. Yesterday we had a gathering of some railroad retirees at a local coffee house in Baton Rouge. This retirement group was formed in the mid 1980's and last year the founding member passed away in his 90's. His wife is a precious and sweet lady of almost 88 years. She decided to give up the home they had shared for over 50 years and move into a retirement center. Cleaning out her home has been difficult and emotional for her....but she says "I'll get through it!"
Being the wife of the founding member, she has been active all of these years in trying to keep the group of railroad retirees who call themselves members of "The Big R Club" vital and involved. She had some handmade birthday cards and some clippings that she wanted to give me....I am currently the secretary of the club. So I emptied the envelope she had handed me yesterday and was looking through it. One of the clippings was yellowed and torn. The article was entitled "The Whistle That Was Bill Casey". I couldn't find any date on the portion of newspaper called "The Dixie Guide". The author, Willis T. Guild, wrote about a railroad engineer by the name of Bill Casey and the way he blew a train whistle.
"When properly played (for Bill Casey actually played it; he didn't just blow it) it could make delicious shivers run up and down your spine. It had a haunting lonesomeness that could bring tears to your eyes. The best effect was achieved if the listener were from one to five miles away."
Mr. Guild went on to tell how popular Bill Casey became as he brough Old No. 14 along the rails between Gulfport and Jackson, MS. He described farmers coming to their porches, often in long night gowns, all with a lantern to signal for Casey to blow his famous whistle. Or the junior college at Brooklyn, MS, where the flashing of the dormitory lights was an understood signal--"blow it good."
As I stood in my kitchen in the dim glow of my under-cabinet lighting and waited for the coffee to complete it's dripping in those pre-dawn minutes this morning, I held that tattered, yellow newspaper clipping in my hands and wondered who was this man? When was this? Whatever happened to him?
So, coffee finally in hand, I turned on my laptop in my little office and Googled "Bill Casey". I Googled "Gulf and Ship Island Railroad", "The Dixie Guide" and even "Willis T. Guild" but I didn't find out much. In reading the article for a second time I did notice that the author first became acquainted with Bill Casey in 1921 even though he was familar with the sound of the whistle songs earlier that that. At the close of the story, Mr. Guild states that "Today Bill Casey lives on Thirtieth Avenue here in Gulfport. At eighty-four years of age he is as active and hearty as a man of forty years." I still had no clue how old the clipping was.
My "Googling" did finally result in an article on the "Spanish American War at Ocean Springs" 1898??? I decided to look through the article because Ocean Springs, MS, is very near Gulfport on the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, I found reference to a Corporal Will Casey (1875-1960), and with the 1960 death year was able to find William H. Casey buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Ocean Springs, MS. Birth: August 24, 1875. Death: August 12, 1960. 12 days shy of his 85th birthday. The article gave a brief bio of Will Casey and it included the following: Casey became a railroad engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad in 1903. He lived at Gulfport and was ......
Sounds like I had found my man and since the train whistle article stated that Mr. Casey was 84 and living in Gulfport, I am assuming the newspaper was from 1959. That was all I could learn. But I still didn't know anything much about the man or why there was a clipping in this envelope. Perhaps it was just because it was "railroad related".
Later in the morning I called the sweet little widow lady that had given me the envelope. When I started to describe the story of a man with a talent for blowing the train whistle she immediately said "Oh! Bill Casey! Yes...my mother dated him for 10 or 12 years when I was a girl! I didn't know that clipping was in there!!"
Now I will tell you "the rest of the story." Mary Elizabeth (the widow) was raised by her mother, who was born in 1902. Her mother was married to a man 22 years her senior who actually died shortly before Mary was born. When Mary was about 10 years old she and her mother were living with her grandparents in Jackson, MS, where the mother met, and began dating, the dapper gentleman, Bill Casey. Mr. Casey was 29 years older than her mother and would have been in his 60's. (Although from the train whistle article said, I figure he must have looked and acted much younger) He had never been married...and was working the run between Gulfport and Jackson, MS. He would be on each end over one night. It was easy for me to imagine that a man who liked to make his train whistle talk and sing, must have been a fun character indeed. Mary remembers many fine and happy outings this little group made together...boating in Oceans Springs, MS....dining in nice restaurants. She remembers Mr. Casey as a very kind and dignified man....and always very properly attired. But...her mother had no desire to marry and eventually the relationship ended. Mary did not know what ever became of her mothers "beaux". Today I was able to tell her that he apparently lived, in good health for another 10-15 years after he and her mother parted ways.
After our telephone conversation I read the article one more time. The author of the train whistle story said "My folks lived in North Jackson near Millsaps College. On still cold nights, I have heard Casey's song faintly as he left Florence (11 miles south of Jackson), heard it grow and swell in volume, up and down, wailing, screaming, laughing, singing--right up to the Jackson city limits."
And I was able to picture a fairly young widow and her young daughter listening in eager anticipation as Casey rode Old Number 14 into town."
You just never know what stories you will find in an old envelope.....if you look!
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