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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] "On Friendship with Walker Percy" - A Personal Remembrance by Judge F. Stephen Ellis

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  • From: RHONDA MCDONNELL <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] "On Friendship with Walker Percy" - A Personal Remembrance by Judge F. Stephen Ellis
  • Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2022 03:34:42 +0000

I agree Karl—it’s absolutely charming, as Percy himself must have been. Certainly every one I’ve ever spoke to who met him has said the same. 

I wish I could add to the recollections of him. My only one is in the form of a well-remembered dream that came to me about the time that Ken Ketner, Karey Perkins, and I were finishing up editing on Percy’s Symbol and Existence. In the dream I showed up at his place in Covington, which I’ve seen in pictures, and he and Mrs. Percy were gracious and showed me about the place and the town. I remembered that dream as I read Judge Ellis’s remembrance and chuckled. Even in the subconscious workings of a scholars brain, it seems that Walker Percy is ever himself. 

Dave Duty, I am also quite interested in any Percy correspondence on semiotic. If you’d be willing to share, I am not the only one who would be most delighted. 

Cheers to all,

Rhonda

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 19, 2022, at 10:18 PM, Karl M. Terrell <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com> wrote:



What a charming remembrance.

I recall reading, elsewhere, that when asked by locals in Covington what he did for a living, his response that he was a writer was met typically with silence. 

He decided, ultimately, that he would just say: “Nothing.” 

“And they were OK with this.”

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 19, 2022, at 7:18 PM, Henry P. Mills III <wppdirector AT gmail.com> wrote:


Dear Percy-L community:

For those interested in a previously unpublished personal remembrance of Percy, please enjoy this touching recollection penned by longtime Covington resident Judge F. Stephen Ellis, as prepared for The Walker Percy Project. Following the below excerpt is a link to Judge Ellis' full remembrance, as well as one to more remembrances from other close friends of Percy, including Robert Coles. 

Would anyone else on the list care to share personal remembrances or recollections of Percy, or past visits to his hometown area?

(Dave Duty, I’ve always wanted to know more about your long term correspondence with Percy on semiotics and where the collection is housed today so researchers can know about it.)

Best Percy regards,
Henry Mills
Percy-L Administrator


——————————

On Friendship with Walker Percy

BY FREDERICK STEPHEN ELLIS

Judge F. Stephen Ellis is author of the historical book St. Tammany Parish: L'Autre Cote Du Lac (Pelican: 1981), which includes a foreword by Walker Percy. Ellis' remembrance is dated January 21, 1997, and is an original publication arranged for by The Project.


"I first met Walker shortly after I came to Covington in the summer of 1949. He lived in the old Norman place on Military Road, about three miles out from Covington. We would see each other from time to time at parties and other community events. When his first book, "The Moviegoer," came out, it was not considered a big deal locally, even after he won the National Book Award. There were, after all, other published authors in Covington. There was not a bookstore, but Hebert's drug store carried his book, and it was there that I bought my first edition.

We got to be good friends in the early to mid-70s, when we mated our miniature schnauzers…"


 


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