RECENT DEATHS: LOUCIOUS B. JACKSON, DENNIS WARE, MELVIN SCATES, HAZEL R. WILLIAMS, ROBERT E. NEWSOME, BILLY RAY WIMBERLY, CHARLES CARTER, DAVID EMERSON, ROBERT "CHEROKEE" BROWN, AUDREY FAYE GRAY WILSON, AUBREY "BOJACK" JACKSON, WILLIAM "BILL" MILLER, JONATHAN KELLY, EDWARD "BOSS" JOHNSON, FANNIE HARRIS, MILDRED L. DICKERSON,- RIP
Lucious Jackson (1941–2022), former Philadelphia 76ers star
Lucious "Luke" Jackson
Loucious Jackson was among the 2016 inductees into the inaugural Small College Basketball Hall of Fame on November 17, 2016. Jackson, who retired in 2002 from the City of Beaumont's Parks and Recreation Department, doesn't talk much about his years playing basketball, preferring to lead a quiet, down-to-earth life, but his list of accomplishments in the sport are great. Jackson was a part of the U. S. Olympic team that won the gold at the 1964 Olympics in Japan. Thereafter, he went on to play with the Philadelphia 76'ers until 1972. He and teammates, including famed player center Wilt Chamberlain, secured the NBA tournament in 1966-67 after defeating the storied Boston Celtics. The San Marcos native moved with his wife to Beaumont, her hometown, in 1973. (Source: Beaumont Enterprise)
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Robert "Bob" Love
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Willie D. Parker enshrined into UAPB Hall of Fame |
 Robert E. Love
Robert Earl Love’s road to NBA stardom was, to say the least, long and winding. Nicknamed “Butterbean” as a boy due to his fondness for the vegetable, Bob Love grew up in a two-bedroom shanty located in rural northeastern Louisiana as one of 14 children. Bob’s mother was just 15 years old when he was born, and his father was nowhere to be found. When he was eight his mother married an ex-Marine who seemed to be angry all the time and would hit Bob whenever the mood struck him. Not long after they married, Bob ran away, moving in with his grandmother, who was only too happy to take him in. As Bob tells the story, when his stepfather came to get him, his grandmother answered the door brandishing an axe handle. “Get out of here,” she said. “The boy lives here now.”
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 Willie D. Parker
Willie D. Parker reflects on his football playing days at Morehouse High School, Arkansas AM&N and the Houston Oilers as well as a 33-year stint with the Bastrop Police Department. Willie David Parker says he could write four books on his fascinating life, which has taken him from Mer Rouge to the NFL and back to Morehouse Parish. “I could write one for high school, one for college, one for the pros and one for my time as a policeman.
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“It is no disgrace to be poor; it is sometimes a disgrace to be rich. It is always a disgrace to be ignorant, for ignorance implies not only a lack of opportunity but also a lack of ability. If you have the ability and if you have the opportunity, then there is no need for disgrace.”
McKinley High School, 1948 Read more |
 Nurse Harriet G. Foster
Mrs. Harriet G. Foster was the first Black nurse in the public health field in North Louisiana. She died April 13, 1984. Her nursing career spanned some 33 years. Born Harriet Gordon, in Hemingway, S.C., Mrs. Foster came from a line of people, the Daniels, who were descended from free Blacks - a family whose pride and independence she inherited.
Mrs. Foster attended the University of Colorado and the University of Michigan, where she studied about polio. She was the first Black to work as a nurse in public health in Morehouse Parish at the Bastrop Health Unit. Read more |
 Dr. John L. Smith
Dr. John L. Smith grew up in Bastrop, Louisiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Lincoln University in Missouri, and went on to Indiana University where he obtained his master’s degree in music education as well as a performance certificate in tuba. From there, he worked as a teacher until he received “an invitation from Uncle Sam to work with him for a while.” After spending four years in the United States Navy, he got his first professional job playing the tuba with the Oklahoma City Symphony.
Read more ______________________________________________ John Smith Oral History Interview June 15, 2004 John L. Smith, former Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of South Florida, speaks about the formation of the College of Fine Arts. Dr. Smith also discusses the origins and development of USF's Black Faculty and Student Congress and Project Thrust. Source: South Flordia Libraries Oral History Program |
