On
the last day of April, 1928 occurs the 28th anniversary
of the death of Casey Jones, probably the most famous
of a long line of locomotive engineer heroes who have
died at their post of duty, one hand on the whistle
and the other on the airbrake lever. Casey Jones' fame
rests on a series of nondescript verses, which can hardly
be called poetry. They were written by Wallace Saunders,
a Negro engine wiper who had been a close friend of
the famous engineer, and who sang them to a jigging
melody all his own.
Mrs. Casey Jones still lives in Jackson, Tenn. She has
two sons and a daughter. Charles Jones, her younger
son, lives in Jackson; Lloyd, the older son, is with
a Memphis auto agency; and her daughter, Mrs. George
McKenzie, lives in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Although 41 years have flitted by since Miss Janie Brady
said "I do" and became the bride of John Luther
(Casey) Jones, Mrs. Jones still keeps green the memory
of that glad occasion. Today, still on the sunny side
of 60, the plump blond woman with her cheery smile tells
graphically the story of how her husband was killed,
and how Wallace Saunders composed the original air and
words that later swept the country for years as the
epic ballad of the railroader.
"My husband's real name was John Luther Jones,"
she told her latest interviewer. "He was a loveable
lad - 6 feet 4 1/2 inches in height, dark-haired and
gray-eyed. Always he was in good humor and his Irish
heart was as big as his body. All the railroaders were
fond of Casey, and his wiper, Wallace Saunders, just
worshipped the ground he walked on.
The
interviewer asked Mrs. Jones how her husband got the
nickname Casey.
"Oh,
I supposed everyone knew that!" she replied. "He
got it from the town of Cayce, Kentucky, near which
he was born. The name of the town is locally pronounced
in two syllables, exactly like 'Casey'."
Mrs. Jones remembers Wallace Saunders very well, although
she has not seen him for years.
"Wallace's
admiration of Casey was little short of idolatry,"
she said. "He used to brag mightily about Mr. Jones
even when Casey was only a freight engineer."
Casey Jones was known far and wide among railroad men,
for his peculiar skill with a locomotive whistle.
"You
see," said Mrs. Jones, "he established a sort
of trade mark for himself by his inimitable method of
blowing a whistle. It was a kind of long-drawn-out note
that he created, beginning softly, then rising, then
dying away almost to a whisper. People living along
the Illinois Central right of way between Jackson and
Water Valley would turn over in their beds late at night
and say: 'There goes Casey Jones,' as he roared by."
After
he had put in several years as freight and passenger
engineer between Jackson and Water Valley, Casey was
transferred early in 1900 to the Memphis-Canton (Miss.)
run as throttle-puller of the Illinois Central's crack
"Cannonball" train.
Casey and his fireman, Sim Webb, rolled into Memphis
from Canton about 10 o'clock Sunday night, April 29.
They went to the checking- in office and were prepared
to go to their homes when Casey heard somebody call
out: "Joe Lewis has just been taken with cramps
and can't take his train out tonight." |
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