Mississippi

Three losses southwest Mississippi could ill afford. See who they were

Published

1 year ago

September 14, 2023

Three losses southwest Mississippi could ill afford. See who they were

Mac Gordon
| Special to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Mississippi’s southwestern corner can ill afford three major losses almost at once as it did with the recent passages of Ralph “Catfish” Smith, Dr. Hank Lewis and Bowdre McDowell.

This trio of unique individuals represented aspects of life that most Mississippians covet: sports, medicine and the U.S. military.

Each is deserving of comment on the contributions they made in their exceptional lives and careers.

Ralph “Catfish” Smith, a Brookhaven native and longtime resident of the McComb area, died Aug. 23. There are few athletes in the state who compiled a prep, college and professional record like Smith’s.

He earned 15 letters in four sports at Brookhaven High, then moved on to Ole Miss where from 1959-1962 he was a two-way football star at offensive and defensive end in the school’s “Glory Years” under legendary coach Johnny Vaught. He was All-SEC twice and a second team All-American choice.

Catfish, who was given the nickname by sportswriter Jimmie “Mississippi Red” McDowell, played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons. He operated a famous Mississippi-Louisiana line restaurant at Osyka, Skinney’s, for years after his retirement.

In Cleveland, Ralph forged a lifelong friendship with Browns star Jim Brown, considered among the best players in NFL history. They regularly saw each other after their careers ended. Jim came to Fernwood, south of McComb, to play golf with Smith, who returned the favor by visiting Brown in Cleveland. Smith leaves his wife, Louette Brewer Smith, and six children.

Dr. Henry “Hank” Lewis, 85, who died Sept. 1 in Amite County, rose from a home without electricity or running water to become one of the region’s most beloved physicians, delivering more than 1,200 babies in a 50-year medical career.

It sounds trite to say that most everybody in Amite County and adjoining counties knew Hank Lewis, but he was, indeed, that well known. He was medical director of the large regional hospital in McComb and also monitored and cared daily for dozens of patients in area nursing homes.

Few loved Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, where he began his education, more than Dr. Lewis. I recall discussing with him a project to build a monument and museum at the college for his fellow Amite Countian and Southwest grad, the storyteller Jerry Clower. “Jerry deserves it. Let’s get that done,” I quoted Hank. It remains a sound idea.

Dr. Lewis was on duty in the emergency room of the McComb hospital the night of Oct. 20, 1977 when the airplane carrying the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed near Gillsburg in Amite County. Crash survivors returning years later to the memorial site always asked about and praised Hank Lewis.

This was a physician who for most of his career provided that most basic of medical care: the sacred house call. He leaves his wife, Betty, and six children.

My Uncle Bowdre McComb, 99, the brother of my late mother, Jonnie M. Gordon, died Aug. 27. Most families have someone who’s the “glue” holding them together. Bowdre, nearing his 100th birthday, was ours.

He served with U.S. Navy amphibious forces in World War II, helping to break Japanese codes.

Many decades later, Bowdre, a lifelong salesman, became a volunteer at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. Thanks to McComb’s Christopher Hart for his sterling “Taps” at the gravesite. Bowdre leaves a sister, a brother and many nieces and nephews.

Bowdre’s grandfather had an Ole Miss professor by that name. The grandfather asked his son, Russ McDowell, to name the next male born “Bowdre.” Thus, Bowdre got his name from Ole Miss —- and his degree from Mississippi State.

— Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.

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Mississippi

Southeast Mississippi Christmas Parades 2024 | WKRG.com

Published

2 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Southeast Mississippi Christmas Parades 2024 | WKRG.com

MISSISSIPPI (WKRG) — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas on the Gulf Coast and that means Santa Claus will be heading to town for multiple parades around the area.

WKRG has compiled a list of Christmas parades coming to Southeast Mississippi.

Christmas on the Water — Biloxi

Dec. 7
6 p.m.
Begins at Biloxi Lighthouse and will go past the Golden Nugget

Lucedale Christmas Parade

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Mississippi

‘A Magical Mississippi Christmas’ lights up the Mississippi Aquarium

Published

10 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

‘A Magical Mississippi Christmas’ lights up the Mississippi Aquarium

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – The Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport is spreading holiday cheer with a new event, ‘’A Magical Mississippi Christmas.’

The aquarium held a preview Tuesday night.

‘A Magical Mississippi Christmas’ includes a special dolphin presentation, diving elves, and photos with Santa.

The event also includes “A Penguin’s Christmas Wish,” which is a projection map show that follows a penguin through Christmas adventures across Mississippi.

“It’s a really fun event and it’s the first time we really opened up the aquarium at night for the general public, so it’s a chance to come in and see what it’s like in the evening because it’s really spectacular and really beautiful,” said Kurt Allen, Mississippi Aquarium President and CEO.

‘A Magical Mississippi Christmas’ runs from November 29 to December 31.

It will not be open on December 11th, December 24th, and December 25th.

Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate.

The event is made possible by the city of Gulfport and Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

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Mississippi

Mississippi asks for execution date of man convicted in 1993 killing, lawyers plan to appeal case to SCOTUS

Published

18 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Mississippi asks for execution date of man convicted in 1993 killing, lawyers plan to appeal case to SCOTUS

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, is seeking an execution date for a convicted killer who has been on death row for 30 years, but his lawyer argues that the request is premature since the man plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Charles Ray Crawford, 58, was sentenced to death in connection with the 1993 kidnapping and killing of 20-year-old community college student Kristy Ray, according to The Associated Press.

During his 1994 trial, jurors pointed to a past rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance when they issued Crawford’s sentence, but his attorneys said Monday that they are appealing that conviction to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled against them last week.

Crawford was arrested the day after Ray was kidnapped from her parents’ home and stabbed to death in Tippah County. Crawford told officers he had blacked out and did not remember killing her.

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Mississippi death row inmate Charles Ray Crawford, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 in the 1993 kidnapping and killing of a community college student, 20-year-old Kristy Ray. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)

He was arrested just days before his scheduled trial on a charge of assaulting another woman by hitting her over the head with a hammer.

The trial for the assault charge was delayed several months before he was convicted. In a separate trial, Crawford was found guilty in the rape of a 17-year-old girl who was friends with the victim of the hammer attack. The victims were at the same place during the attacks.

Crawford said he also blacked out during those incidents and did not remember committing the hammer assault or the rape.

During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital murder trial in Ray’s death, jurors found the rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the death sentence, according to court records.

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During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital murder trial, jurors found his prior rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the death sentence. (iStock)

In his latest federal appeal of the rape case, Crawford claimed his previous lawyers provided unconstitutionally ineffective assistance for an insanity defense. He received a mental evaluation at the state hospital, but the trial judge repeatedly refused to allow a psychiatrist or other mental health professional outside the state’s expert to help in Crawford’s defense, court records show.

On Friday, a majority of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Crawford’s appeal.

But the dissenting judges wrote that he received an “inadequately prepared and presented insanity defense” and that “it took years for a qualified physician to conduct a full evaluation of Crawford.” The dissenting judges quoted Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni, a neurologist who examined Crawford.

“Charles was laboring under such a defect of reason from his seizure disorder that he did not understand the nature and quality of his acts at the time of the crime,” Nadkarni wrote. “He is a severely brain-injured man (corroborated both by history and his neurological examination) who was essentially not present in any useful sense due to epileptic fits at the time of the crime.”

Photo shows the gurney of an execution chamber. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

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Crawford’s case has already been appealed multiple times using various arguments, which is common in death penalty cases.

Hours after the federal appeals court denied Crawford’s latest appeal, Fitch filed documents urging the state Supreme Court to set a date for Crawford’s execution by lethal injection, claiming that “he has exhausted all state and federal remedies.”

However, the attorneys representing Crawford in the Mississippi Office of Post-Conviction Counsel filed documents on Monday stating that they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s ruling.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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