Dr. Tommy Grafton
A memorial song service for Dr. Tommy Grafton, age 83 of Farmerville, will be held at 2 p.m., Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at First Baptist Church in Farmerville. Visitation will be held at noon, prior to the service.
This is being written as I sit on my back porch overlooking beautiful Lake D’Arbonne during the August 21, 2017 lunar eclipse. The following is something I felt needed to put to paper, but if you feel a need to take a short nap, please feel free to do so since it will not hurt my feelings.
God blessed me from birth with a mother who was the kindest, most generous, and hardworking person I ever met. In that same household was my grandparents who were married for 62 years and served as extended parents and role models. My mother spent many hours teaching me how to fish, hunt, and develop an appreciation for the great outdoors.
I feel that God put certain people in my life at different times that helped me in so many ways. Mr. Stone Harris, my school bus driver for 13 years probably prevented me from becoming a first grade dropout by insisting that I had to let go of the front porch post and get on the bus. He was a friend and respected role model for many years. After failing the first grade, I became a part of a unique group of close knit students that stayed that way even though many have passed on. Bo Smith and I spent 12 years together in school, many hours in the woods and lakes and I never met a more loyal friend who helped so many people.
Coach Johnnie Emmons came to Bernice to play semi-pro baseball and teach at Spearsville High School. He became the manager of the baseball team; I became the batboy and in my sophomore year he became the football coach at Bernice High. He and his wife were like a second family to me for many years. Coach Emmons and Billy Jack Booth made it possible for me to attend Northwestern State College on a scholarship where I worked and played for Coach Cracker Brown who was one of the finest Christian men I have ever met. Some of the men that I met at Northwestern in the fall of 1959 like Glenn Talbert have been friends and inspirations since that day. Glenn has been not only a friend but a brother through the daily trials of life.
There is no doubt that God put some wonderful teachers in my path that inspired me to follow that same path in life. My first teaching job was at Amelia, in an elementary school sixth grade classroom with 38 students that ranged in age from 11-18. I spent time at the junior high and high school level. Each of these experiences was a challenge, but I firmly believe God was preparing me for an opportunity that presented itself in 1967. In the spring of 1967, a friend who wanted me to enter the doctoral program asked me to ride to the University of Southern Mississippi to talk to the dean of education. They didn’t have the program I needed but the dean asked me to come back in two weeks to speak to a friend of his who happened to be Dr. C.E. McCarver.
My wife and I went to Southern Miss a couple of weeks later and met this man God out in my path. He told me to go home, resign my teaching and coaching job, and come to school full time. I told him we didn’t have money, jobs, or a place to stay. He told me again, go home and resign and come to school full time. I did resign and within a week, my wife had a contract to teach English at the University of Southern Miss, I had a teaching fellowship and we had an apartment in married housing. I would like to tell you that all of this happened because of my scholarly ability but when you graduate twenty seventh out of thirty six at Bernice High School, that couldn’t be the case. Again, God and the people he places in your life.
My first job offer after finishing the doctoral program was with the Louisiana Department of Education. I was Supervisor of Special Schools or Schools for the Handicapped. God let me know just how blessed I was after a few weeks of visiting these schools and seeing the special people who cared for the less fortunate.
While visiting with the administration at Ruston State School, one of the men asked if I missed teaching. He told me the President of Grambling was looking for some local white teachers for his faculty. After a couple of phone calls to my boss in Baton Rouge, I was told to go meet with President Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones or Prez as most called him. The visit was short; a letter arrived a week later stating if I wanted to teach at Grambling, sign it and send it back to Prez.
Six years later that and a handshake was our contract. I spent five of those years traveling with Coach Prez in baseball which he coached for 52 years. After three years I was offered a job at Louisiana Tech at a better salary but Prez refused to give me a release. I asked him why he wouldn’t give me a release since he was near retiring. He said, I didn’t want to since I depend on you and I want you to stay until I retire. As I started to leave I told him I would not look for another job, He asked me where I would like to go and I told him I would like to stay in Ruston and he said OK.
Prez retired on June 30, 1977 and I was hired at Louisiana Tech during the second week of August. The years at Grambling and Tech never seemed like a job but an opportunity to do something you really enjoy. There were bumps in the road but they simply made all the other that more of a blessing.
Thank God for the wonderful students that gave me such an enriching career. You will never know how good it was to come to work each day. The karate team coached by Dr. Dave Jordan and president of the United States Karate Alliance opened a whole new world to me by allowing me to work as your athletic trainer for over twenty years.
Our drug prevention staff went far beyond the call of duty to do something to stop something that is destroying many of our young people. Thank you teachers, students, and administrators of Union Parish for helping lead the fight against drug abuse.
Only in America could a small boy from the backwoods of Shiloh be blessed with this kind of life. Love you.
