Arkansas Blog: A life well lived

It's a slow morning. So I'd like to reprint the best thing I read in the morning paper. It was the paid obituary notice for Ellis "Water Boy" Stafford of Gurdon. It's a testament to hard work, family and good deeds.

GURDON - Ellis “Water Boy” Stafford died on Sunday, February 8, 2009, in his home. He was 87. Ellis was born on June 5, 1921, in the Greenville community of Gurdon to the late Mr. Fred Stafford and Mrs. Lucy Ward-Stafford, Although Ellis attended the public schools in Gurdon he did not complete high school due to the sudden death of his parents. But he received his formal education from the “University of Hard Knocks.”

Since Ellis and his sister Essie Mae were the oldest of the living children, they became the “guardians” for the rest of their siblings. Ellis left school when he was in the sixth grade, and immediately entered the job market to earn money to help care for his siblings and himself. He went to work at Stone Mill where he used a wheel barrow to transport saw dust that was used to fire the boiler to generate steam to operate the mill where he earned $.75 cents per day.

During that time Ellis’ friendship and courtship began around 1934 with Beatrice Margaret Bragg when he was 13 years old and Beatrice was 12 years old. After courting for several years, Ellis and Beatrice were married on March 16, 1941. Following the wedding Ellis and Beatrice farmed for about three months and then quit because he said “they almost starved to death.”

On July 28, 1941, Ellis’ was hired to work as a laborer for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (MPRC). Since Ellis was only 20 at the time, the road master in the MPRC headquarters thought he was too young to do laborer’s work, and then assigned him to be his cook in his private home which was against company policy. When Ellis and the road master got busted by railroad agents for this violation 12 years later, he was assigned back to being a laborer in the Maintenance Department of the company at roughly 31 years of age. At that age the road master still felt Ellis was too young for hard labor, and then assigned him to another “light duty” position as a “water boy.” His duties were to carry water in two two-gallon buckets for the “extra gang” of 50-60 men which required his walking several miles a day in weather conditions of over 100 degrees in the summer and below freezing in the winter.

Ellis said “carrying water and flagging were the hardest jobs because he had to stand long periods of time, and he could never sit.” Ellis held the job as “water boy” for about 10 years. Hence his nickname as “water boy” will remain legendary throughout the railroad industry and amongst his friends and acquaintances around the United States.

During this time Ellis and Beatrice became landowners when they purchased four acres of land with an old house on it for $175.00 and a monthly payment of $10.00. Ellis described the house as being “so raggedy they had to sleep in rain coats to keep from getting wet when it rained.” For the next seven to eight years they struggled to make ends meet because the babies were coming.

In 1950 Ellis was laid off from the MPRC, and then started to work at the Reynolds Aluminum Plant in Gum Springs. After being laid off from Reynolds in 1953, Ellis realized an immediate sense of urgency to find work with all of those new baby Staffords to feed. He temporarily worked at the Oaklawn Park Race Track grooming horses. To save as much money as possible for his family, Ellis slept in the stables and cooked beans on a hot plate, which could have cost him his job had the stables caught fire, but he was blessed that didn’t happen. When the season ended at Oaklawn, Ellis worked as an independent scrap iron dealer. Ellis was later called back to the MPRC to work as a laborer.

In 1954 Ellis was promoted to mechanic helper and covered the south end from Benton to Texarkana. In 1955 Ellis bid on a machine operator’s position and was assigned to the position in Gurdon, and continued to cover the southern region. He was then transferred to Little Rock to build an electronic switching yard where he worked as a laborer and machine operator.

In 1961 Ellis bid again on a machine operator’s job in Gurdon which he received, but that job was also transferred to Little Rock and northern Arkansas. Then an assistant foreman’s job became open in Gurdon in 1963 which Ellis bid on and received, supervising eight men. In 1964 Ellis was promoted to foreman in Prescott and then to Hope to supervise the “tie gang” that was responsible for installing1,000 cross ties per day by hand.

In 1971 Ellis was assigned to be the foreman of the “rail gang” in Hope. The rail gang consisted of 75 courageous men who were responsible for laying at least a quarter mile of rail per day by hand.

Later that year, another foreman’s job became open in Gurdon which was assigned to Ellis who was responsible for supervising eight men to do track repair and maintenance. Ellis finished his career in Gurdon where he began on July 28, 1941. He retired in Gurdon on July 28, 1982.

Ellis said his proudest accomplishments were being one of the first men from Gurdon to Little Rock to build electronic switches and in 1970 when he was the only Black person in a group for the MPRC chosen to go to Washington, D.C., to accept the Harriman Safety award. Ellis proudly stated “they said I couldn’t make it, but I did. I started out making $2.47 per day and ended making $2,500 per month.”

Ellis is known throughout the country as a great humanitarian who supported many causes, and was very active in local politics. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Central Arkansas Development Council for over 30 years. Additionally, Ellis was a long-term member of the board of directors of the Gurdon Senior Center.

Ellis joined Roanoke Baptist Church at an early age, and devoted his entire life to maintaining the buildings and finances, mowing the lawn there and at the cemetery until his health would not allow him to do so. Being the diplomat that he was, he then worked out an agreement with the County Sheriff who now uses inmates to maintain the cemetery grounds.

Because of Ellis’ tenacity, determination and great working relationship with county officials, he was finally able after many decades to get the county to pave the dusty Greenville Road. Many people in the community never believed they’d ever see the elimination of dirt roads in Greenville. Ellis was very proud of his great accomplishment along with everyone else in the community.

In addition to his parents, Ellis was preceded in death by his brother James Stafford; three sisters, Dorothy Stafford, Clara Mae Ritchie, and Edna Stafford; daughter Gloria J. Stafford-Whitmore; and two sons, Douglas E. Stafford and Milton F. Stafford.

He is survived by the love of his life and faithful wife of 67 years, Beatrice Bragg-Stafford; sister, Essie Mae (W.C.) Brown of San Francisco, Calif., Carl (Mary) Stafford of Texarkana, Ark.; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, John and Serena White of Flint, Mich.; brother-in law and sister-in-law Archie and Marie Bragg of Chicago, Ill.; brother-in-law and sister-in-law James and Luise Bragg; sons, Harold (Velvia) Stafford of Camden, Del., Phillip (Jeannette) Stafford of Vacaville, Calif., Michael (Gracie) Stafford of Little Rock, Ark.; 13 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and cherished friends.

A viewing will be held on Thursday, February 12, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Mitchell’s Funeral Home, 1809 Caddo Street in Arkadelphia. A second viewing is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, February 13 at Mt. Canaan Baptist Church, 504 South 5th Street in Gurdon.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, February 13 at Mt. Canaan Baptist Church, 504 South 5th Street in Gurdon. Ellis will be laid to rest in the Greenville Cemetery.

The family will receive guests at Mt. Canaan Baptist Church immediately following the services.

-- with permission from Mitchell's Funeral Home

Comments

Here's to you "Water Boy".

Posted by: jrb | February 11, 2009 07:40 AM

How old do you have to be to be a laborer. I'd've thought a young 20y/o would have been preferred. My hat's off to you Ellis! Rest In Peace.

Posted by: Rutrow | February 11, 2009 08:02 AM

Somehow, someway, someone had access to a lot of detail to dates, etc., that must have been kept by someone even at a young age. Heck, I can remember working in a drugstore as a soda jerk while in high school but don't pen me down to actual dates.

Posted by: Cato | February 11, 2009 08:14 AM

Thanks Max. This puts today's hard times in perspective.

Posted by: scrapper72 | February 11, 2009 08:23 AM

My Dad was like that, Cato -- kept every "important" piece of paper that ever came his way in a cedar lock box not much bigger than a toaster-oven. Of course, there wasn't the flood of "important" papers that we get nowadays. There were the legal papers including deeds and others pertaining to naturalization, and a few old letters.
There were handwritten tallies from the time he owned a bar and money seemed to be missing, old bank books (remember bank books?) and the newspaper clipping noting that his bank and many others in Chicago had closed in the 1930s, an indication that he and thousands of others had lost ALL their savings.
Ninety seven years of "important" papers in a small cedar box.
Given hubby's paperwork from Medicare and various insurances, a bit pertaining to my medical care, bank statements and notices, and the regular monthly bills and other minutiae, I accumulate that amount in two or three months.
Throw it away as sis-in-law advises constantly? Uh, no. It's already proved invaluable in fights with various entities.
But I'm going to have to cull it soon or we're going to have to give it its own room. Eventually we'll have to move out of the house.

Posted by: Doigotta | February 11, 2009 09:09 AM

There is no reference to membership in the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo. I guess that's not necessarily a Gurdon birthright anymore than being from Hope means you have to run for president.

Posted by: bugeyedlittlefreak | February 11, 2009 09:21 AM

Anybody who likes skimming the obits each day looking for a gem like this, do yourself a favor and buy Arkasnas native Marilyn Johnson's book "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasure of Obitituaries." It came out last year and is a wonderful look at the art of the obit. Most of the obits in the Dem-Gaz are forgettable (what she terms 'the desperate chronology of jobs, accomplishments and survivors), but at some papers the obit writer gains cult-like followings by creatively summarizing a person's existence into prose that can be consumed along with one's first cup o' joe. Johnson herself wrote celebrated obits for Princess Di and Johnny Cash. The internet has helped introduce the best obit writers to a worldwide audience in addition to the communities they serve. Johnson finds great irony in this fact. "We are nearing the end of newspapers as we know them so it seems right that their obits are flourishing."

Posted by: KnockKnock | February 11, 2009 11:24 AM

I was awful bad about worshiping heroes I never had a chance of meeting. Dead Presidents, movie stars my parent's age, titans of industry far from Arkansas...people more imaginary than real. I still feel sad when I think of Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Jimmy Stewart, Desi & Lucy, and John Wayne....all gone and working on being forgotten.

But through a strange twist I've got to meet living, breathing, people from in and around Fort Baptist the last couple of years and my whole definition of the word hero has changed. Young folks can mostly only be heroes if they save someone from a burning building or give a kidney to a dying sibling....something very dramatic and difficult. They get on the evening news and the front page of our newspapers and good for that. But what most of us don't know is that we pass blindly by heroes all around us every day. Most of them will only get their names in the paper when they die, buried back in the obit pages.....like Mr. Stafford.

He was no Hollywood hero, his big claim to fame was that he retired making 2500 dollars a month. I know an eye doctor that makes that in an hour zapping out filmy lenses and putting a twinkle back. But that eye doctor has been married 5 times that I can count and I know I've missed a few. If you can stay married to the same person for 67 years, that makes you a hero in my filmy eyes.

But Mr. Stafford was a hero because life handed him nothing but a hard time and backbreaking work and instead of robbing banks or crawling into a bottle, he put his head down and did whatever it took to keep on going. A black man born in 1921 in Arkansas would have started out so far behind the 8 ball he couldn't see the table. Applying the term "waterboy" to a 31 year old man would have been enough to finish me off right there, but Mr. Stafford took it for 10 long years.

I've been extremely lucky to learn that the old man you didn't notice shuffling by at the grocery store, was tough enough to spend 6 months in a frozen fox hole in the mountains of Italy dodging bullets and 88 shells, living off canned spam for every meal and getting a shower every month or two...a cold shower at that. I think I'll die if my cable was to be shut off for a week!

As amazing as the war stories are, even more amazing is that these heroes of WWII came back home and spent the next 40 years working dreadful, dull jobs in order to put food on the table. They endured back breaking labor, bosses from hell, plant closings and crop failures while continuing to jiggle their babies and grandbabies on their knee, keeping the cemetery mowed, attending lodge meetings and mostly we paid them back by borrowing their cars, expecting them to fix our bikes and giving us spending money for the weekends.

Those old ladies you see with the humps in their backs birthed us, wiped our noses and bottoms, chased off the black plague with gallons of Lysol, put up with Dad, many times after a full day of taming a schoolroom of brats, or avoiding the boss and his fanny pats, or manning bed pans all night at the hospital. Air conditioning, power windows, 6 cup holders in their cars......nope. Just one long day after the other spent taking care of someone else, putting their own needs dead last.

And most of them did it without performance enhancing drugs, multi-million dollar contracts, huge Christmas bonuses, or expense paid junkets to golf in Scotland. Our nations heroes have always been right here around us. And most of them go to their graves unnoticed and un-thanked unless they're lucky enough to have a great obituary written for them like Mr. Stafford's. Hopefully someone expressed their appreciation, respect and admiration to Mr. Stafford while he was alive to hear it. Obviously someone thought he was a hero.

Our heroes may come with a small "h" but they're heroes none the less. Look around and see if you find a hero to thank while they're still time for them to hear it. Trust me, they're all around you every day. Do it!

Posted by: Deathbyinches | February 11, 2009 11:59 AM

Thanks for posting, Max. What a great story!

Posted by: Alan Wilbourn | February 11, 2009 03:49 PM

that is a great story, Max. glad you posted that. and I thought I had problems because i just found out that we will be without 75% of our accounts @ work for the next 2-3 days due to some new government-based security regulations or some such. my last paycheck was so small it was barely visible because of all the snowstorms. One trip to the drugstore and a very limited trip to the grocery store and it was almost gone, just enough left to save for emergencies, and those will have to be cheap ones at that. Im just thankful I was able to buy my medicine. dont know what I will do about the ones Im going to run out of tomorrow, but I can't worry about that tonight or I will go nuts.

No telling how many heroes like Mr. Stafford we pass every single time we go to the drugstore or grocery store. they just did what they had to do to get it done, to provide for their families. There was no such thing as welfare and they wouldn't have accepted it on any conditions if there had been, either. Rest in peace, Mr. Stafford; you've sure earned some rest. But what a legacy he left behind!

Posted by: tina | February 11, 2009 07:54 PM

Arkansas Blog

A life well lived

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