People & Places
A Man of Grace
If the clock is right, it’s 11:17. Paul Hemphill, chronicler of the unsung trucker and the well sung country star ponders a photographer, Louie Favorite, whose face is partly covered by a Leica.
The image he captures resonates of a man at ease, comfortable with and surrounded by his life. The photograph of Jimmy Carter above his desk, an unpretentious bookshelf filled with books of literature and art and a comfortable sofa to ponder it all.
Awards hang in the corner, an after thought. A love of the game lines the top of the shelves, a reminder of the start of this writer’s life as a sports writer. Favorite photos, notes and mementos glow in the soft light of a lamp and a drawing of the Bard stands watch, a reminder of the history of his craft.
In a sixtieth of a second Louie captured a slice of life and time from a writer that will be missed.
“I wish I had read all his books. There’s still time for that and I’ll be reading his Hank Williams book as soon as I can find a copy. We really didn’t talk much, he had a quiet, but friendly demeanor. He was most cooperative with whatever my needs for the photograph might have been. He was a very nice and unassuming gentleman.” Louie said.
“He was quiet but in a friendly way, he made me feel welcome without using a lot of excessive words.” Louie’s impression of the moment was another way of saying that Paul Hemphill was a man with grace. We know ourselves better because of his writing and because he was among us.
-
Myra Blackmon says: Billy, you have captured Paul in his lair. Perfect.
-
Myra Blackmon says:
That’s true Billy, a picture vs a thousand words and all that. However, your words greatly enhanced the value of the photo, brought more depth to an already great shot.
-
Susan Miles says: Back in my MDJ days, I was fortunate enough to take a “travel writers” trip to western Mexico. Paul Hemphill was one of the other writers on the journey, and it was delightful to spend time with someone I had admired for so long. This was shortly after Paul’s book “Long Gone” came out, and Paul noticed another passenger reading the book. He stopped, introduced himself, and offered to sign the book. He came back to the group chuckling because his inscription had read, “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” What a great sense of humor and a talented writer. He will be missed.
-
Chris Wohlwend says: Graceful capture of a man of grace by Louie, and a graceful capture of the capture by Billy.
Charles Seabrook Leave a Reply
Related Posts
- Paul Hemphill: Our great loss
- My Favorite Photographer
- Let Us Speak of Gumbo
- Bits, Bauds, Books and Brown
- Remembering a hero
- Still relevant to times that are a’changing
- Remembering The Wish Book
- Edward Hirsch: “You Have to Write The Poems That Only You Could Write”
- The past is always with us
- A man from the South has a rebirth in the Midwest
Last 5 posts by Billy Howard
- Body Language - July 28th, 2010
- A Haiku a Day - July 27th, 2010
- Ben Stein's BFF - July 22nd, 2010
- Pistol Packin’ Preacher - July 9th, 2010
- Ode to Louie (this is not a cologne!) - July 1st, 2010
DewTube
Story Archive
Like The Dew? You can make a donation by clicking here. Note: we are not a 501(c)(3) - we haven't decided about that, yet.
A portion of each purchase from our Dew Shops goes to support LikeTheDew.
Copyright © 2010
LikeTheDew.com | Privacy | Log in | 
Subscribe to RSS Feed | Comments RSS | Top ⇑
Any copyrighted material on these pages is used in "fair use," for the purpose of study, review
or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner.
6 Responses to “A Man of Grace”