Don Walker was a high school senior from Chicago who came to Louisiana Tech sight unseen, got himself educated and was one of the best reporters and writers to ever darken the door of The Times in Shreveport. He is doing well at Florida Today now, but a lot of us miss him personally; I miss his writing too.
He sent me and a few other friends this note below the other day. John Andrew Prime dug out this photograph for him because John Andrew is like that; he'll do things for you when he knows it's important to you. Good man.
From Donnie Golfgame...
I thought I'd share this with you. I figure Wiley would get a kick out of it too. Heading into my 28th year with Gannett, I'm amazed sometimes at the characters and people I've run across who left amazing impressions on me. Now and then I stumble across the fact that some of them are no longer with us....
It was kinda sad reading about Dave Treen's death on the Shreveport Times Web site this morning. One of my fondest memories as a cub reporter was being sent to cover the Farmerville Watermelon Festival. I'd never talked to a governor before, but at one point there we were -- me and Gov. Dave Treen. I told him I was covering the festival for The Times, and asked if I could take a quick photo of him. He said, "What do you want me to do?"
I told him, "you don't have to do anything. I'll just take a quick snapshot."
To that, he said, "Naw, let's make it something big." He reached down and hoisted this big, fat watermelon onto his shoulder, and I took the photo. Next day, it was the Page 1 strip story with the governor standing there holding this watermelon next to his head. Classic!
If you're curious, that had to be about 1983-ish. If any of you have the time and computer expertise, I wouldn't mind seeing that old photo again. That smile on his face was for me, and I'll never forget it.
RIP, Dave Treen.
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