Darrell Huckaby: Remembering and celebrating Lamar Crawley
Darrell Huckaby, a native of Porterdale, Ga, is a double graduate of UGA and a retired educator with 40 years of classroom experience.
Lamar Crawley.
That’s a name that brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. You are familiar with the term “prince of a fellow?” The phrase was coined for people like Lamar - and trust me on this one - people like Lamar, well, that’s a very exclusive club.
Lamar was an educator. For more than 50 years. At so many levels. He was an English teacher - and he’d tell you right quick that he taught English - not language arts. He was a high school principal and for many years ran the VICA program at Heritage High School, which is where I had the privilege of getting to know him.
He and his wife, Charlotte, were married for almost 59 years. Charlotte and his daughters, Suzanne and Caroline - and, of course, his grandchildren - were the absolute loves of his life.
I like to brag about being a Double-Dog. Lamar had five degrees from UGA. Normally I would say such a person was educated beyond his intelligence, but Lamar was not. A native of Griffin - born there in 1937 - he and his wife, Charlotte, made their home in Monticello starting in 1974, and everybody in Monticello - and I mean everybody, knew Lamar and his smiling face.
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His smile. That’s the first thing I think of when I think of Lamar.
I am one of those folks who never meet a stranger and when I meet people for the first time, I always seek common ground by asking where they are from. Whenever I met someone from Monticello, Lamar was my go-to person for that question, and it always led to great conversation.
One such time was in historic Grant Field when Georgia was playing Georgia Tech, many years ago. As fate would have it, I was sitting beside a giant of a Bulldog fan who told me his name was John Brown. I suspected that might be an alias, but I went with it. My new friend told me he lived in Monticello, and we quickly began to exchange stories about Lamar. It was a great ice breaker. Having a new friend came in handy, too - especially one of such substantial girth - because things got a bit chippy by the end of the game and I exchanged a few unpleasantries with some Tech fans as the contest was winding down and when it seemed that things might move beyond verbal sparring, John had my back.
I couldn’t wait to get to school Monday and tell Lamar all about it. He was waiting for me in the school commons area, as was his custom each day, and I greeted him with “I met a friend of yours from Monticello at the game Saturday.”
A big grin split his face and he replied, “He told me. That’s my preacher.”
John Brown and I have been fast friends ever since. Lamar was a Methodist, by the way.
As I said, I looked forward to exchanging pleasantries with Lamar every morning, first thing, and he usually had a new joke to tell me. “Sheep’ll lie,” was the punchline to one of his favorites, but that’s as much of it as I can share. We also had long conversations about history and books and high school sports and politics and the younger generation.
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Lamar Crawley loved the younger generation. He loved kids and he loved teaching and he was fiercely loyal to the children he taught. In the latter stages of his career, when he was in charge of VICA, he was the difference-maker in hundreds of kids’ lives because he believed, in them and convinced them to believe in themselves.
I loved getting Lamar’s goat from time to time. One of my students would ask me a question about something that had happened in history back during World War I or maybe before the turn of the twentieth century and I would send them down to Lamar’s room to ask him for a first-hand account. He would always find a way to get me back.
He was so supportive of me and of my writing. He would set up book signings for me in Monticello whenever I had a new book come out and he would share my columns with all his friends - turning on many folks, like the Yearwoods, to my work. He was known all over Georgia in Vocational Education and often had me speak at state and national functions. He was a true friend.
We lost Lamar’s physical body on May 24, but Alzheimer’s Disease had stolen his magnificent persona from us years ago.
I got a message from Suzanne a couple of weeks ago, letting me know that his time was getting close. I got another devastating message from Suzanne on Election Day, letting me know that he was gone. Sadly, I was a thousand miles away, leading a trip from San Antonio, Texas to North Dakota and was not able to properly pay my respects, but respect and love and cherish the memory of Lamar Crawley I do, and always will.
I am sorry for Charlotte and his girls and those who love him and will miss him, but I am happy that my friend has been freed from the bonds of that insidious disease and I am grateful for the gracious salvation that Christ offers. Because of that grace and salvation, I know I will see my friend again.
When I do, I bet he’ll have a new joke for me.
Sheep’ll lie.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Lamar Crawley remembered and celebrated: Opinion
