Delivered at the Memorial Service
for my friend Walker P. Johnson, Jr.
on Monday, August 21, 2000.
--Tommy Day Wilcox
We played together, and we prayed together, he and I,
We even taught Sunday School together,
We worked together - but never too hard,
We ate together, and we drank together, sometimes too hard,
We went fishing and hunting together and enjoyed the cooking of the catch and the kill,
We were men together,
I admired his intellect and his reasoning skills,
He accepted my common-sense response to complex situations that defiled superior intellect and logical reasoning skills,
He was a lover of poetry and the opera,
I do not care for the opera but found enjoyment and pleasure in his selection of poems,
He was a collector of ancient legal treatises, but, to the best of my knowledge, he never read any of them,
The lament at home and the office was the same,
`Oh my - Walker has ordered another law book,'
On the other hand, World War II historical novels were his real passion,
He would borrow or buy any book on this subject and ofttimes read them more than twice,
His watchword was, `If change is not absolutely necessary, then it is absolutely necessary not to change,'
His compassion for his fellowman came to the fore when he presided in a court set up to assist persons in need of treatment for drug and alcohol addiction,
I tried to offer support and encouragement with this our common dream,
Sometimes we agreed, and sometimes we disagreed,
He would attempt to straighten me out, and, in turn, I attempted to straighten him out, all to no avail,
But, our storms were always short-lived, and we were the better for the peace that followed,
He was kind enough to ask about my children and kind enough to listen to my praise,
Likewise, he reveled in telling me about his children and the pride and joy received from their lives lived to the highest of his expectations,
His legacy is not his judicial career - His legacy is his children,
We shared a deep and abiding love for the same woman, He as husband, and I as friend,
To him she was everything a man could hope for in a companion for life,
For me she is a kindred spirit, a tower of strength - a person of character and resolve,
He suffered mightily when he thought I was dying, and I suffered mightily when I realized he was dying,
We cried together, veterans in the battle against cancer,
We found solace in a childhood prayer learned from our Mothers,
In his darkest hour the words "Now I lay me down to sleep' brought comfort to both of us. Mary Banks would have been pleased,
We were always making plans for another trip together, he and I, Katherine and Cindy,
We believed in the same God, the same Savior, the same church, and we were confident we were bound for the Promised Land and wanted to go there,
I believe he has made it to the Promised Land, and I hope one day to join him there,
He will always live in my soul,
He is my friend.