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Robert Cannon
I went to Jimmy's viewing and funeral. Attendance was sparse so I spent time with his children talking about their lives with him as a father. I also spoke with his siblings at length about his life after college. At the funeral, some poetry was read, and at the burial site people randomly spoke of him. Their interractions were based on his later years when he struggled with alcohol abuse. Nobody knew him from Jr. High or high school except Wolfie Lewis and me. His children knew of his love of reading, but, not his early personality. I didn't know him in his last 35 years, except, for his problems, through word of mouth. As everyone spoke, I was frustrated and saddened that no one knew his serious or youthful life. As the microphone was passed through his family, I reluctantly, spoke for a few moments. I mentioned, how, the first time I saw him, when he moved to our neighborhood, he was reading a book on his way from school. He loved to read. They mentioned his large library at his house. I told about how he didn't make the little league basketball team. Instead of pouting, he worked so hard and in two years, he was starting on the JV team while the rest of us were on the sophmore team. He worked hard to be great. The boys did know his favorite basketball player, Jerry West. I was happy he shared his love of basketball with them. They said he had two posters, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Cathy, his sister, told me that over the last three weeks, while in hospice, he just wanted to hold her hand. A sad ending to the great guy with whom I walked and talked, each day, on our way to East high school.
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