...passing of a friend; passing of an era...

During my formative years, Murphy Martin had a major influence on me. I looked up to him as I might have to an older brother. Murphy was a distant cousin. We both were born in Groveton, a small, relatively insignificant saw-mill town in east Texas.

For a few years, my daddy (Alton Thompson) sang in a couple of gospel quartets on the local radio stations in Lufkin. If the buildings still stand, you're likely to find my "nose-print" permanently embedded in the multi-panel studio sound-proof glass. Much of that "nose-time" was watching Murphy Martin at the controls of radio station KTRE in Lufkin -- learning, soaking up every nuance, every motion, every word.

A while later, in junior high school, my friend Larry Bills somehow finagled a weekly radio program, oriented toward our school mates, and invited me to be his assistant host. Larry moved on, and I kept the program going in various guises through most of my junior year. When I began to "solo", Murphy Martin was the one who took me into the Control Room, sat me in the "Air Chair" and taught me how to operate all the mysterious controls and spin records. Gave me some pointers on reading the news.

I did not realize at the time what profound effects this kind, simple instruction would have on the rest of my life.

Fast forward to about 10 years later. Murphy is assigned by WFAA-TV in Dallas, to covering the Billy Sol Estes scandals during the Lyndon Johnson administration. I was then in the news department of WFTV, Channel 9 in Orlando. Before long, Murphy had been moved by ABC to New York, where he became the iconic "anchor" of their prime-time evening news. "Murphy Martin and The News" became one of the highest rated network news shows of the mid-sixties era.

During his stint, he arranged for me to meet Tom O'Brien, at the time, News Director of ABC Radio News, and a friend of Murphy's.

O'Brien subsequently invited me to New York, where he offered me my "dream job", Science Editor / Reporter for ABC radio.

For a number of reasons, I never took the job, but both started and reached the pinnacle of my profession through the care and tutelage of Murphy Martin.

And now.... he is gone. If there is such a position in the life to come, he's reporting on current events from his "Front Row Seat".

Farewell, old friend. See you again!! That's my time. Thank you so much for yours.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070408dnmetmurphymartin.22bf4ac6.html

. . . my brother was an only child . . .

"My brother was an only child."
Mon, 01/21/2008 - 02:05

My brother WAS an only child!

You may not know it, but I was born at a very young age. Wasn't even a year old, as a matter of fact. But, that didn't discourage my parents. They kept me anyway.

Alton Thompson and Annie Swor grew up in Trinity County, Texas, in the first half of the 20th century and like many others of their time, were victims of The Great Depression. Alton was born and grew up in Sylvester, just outside the logging town of Groveton. Annie was born and grew up just a few miles away in Apple Springs. Good thing it was a ride on horseback of a reasonable distance, or I may never have seen the light of day.

Dad's parents were Cleona Fidelia (Mochman) Thompson Harrott. Very German in her early years, but greatly Americanized and "Texanized" by the time I knew her. I never knew my grandfather, Herbert Thompson. He died during the year of the great flu epidemic, in 1917. He had "Bright's Disease", so I've never known which claimed him - the flu or the disease. He left my grandmother and four relatively young children, Butler, Madge, Alton, and Wilhelmina to operate a farm and feed and clothe themselves . . . alone. I don't recall their relative ages . . . I'll try to find and post that later, but Alton was 4 and the younger Wilhelmina was only 2 when he died.

A few years later, Grandma married Joseph Harrott, her brother-in-law. Jodie, he liked to be called, was a brother of ______ Harrott, husband of her sister, Ocie. So, Grandma and Jodie are who I remember as my paternal grandparents. Perhaps later, I'll have time for a few stories about them.

Mother's parents were Richard Henry Wright Swor and Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Swor. Farmers.

Richard - all his children AND grandchildren called him "Papa" - had migrated from Swortown, near Paris, TN, when his parents moved to Texas.

Mary Elizabeth - we called her "Grandma", but her friends called her "Lizzie" - had been orphaned when she was quite small. She had been adopted by a couple named "Smith" in the southern Georgia town of Cairo. When she was 7, the family migrated from Georgia to East Texas by covered wagon.

I don't recall much about mother and daddy courting. I guess I was much too young to have noticed. :) But, I do recall them telling about daddy riding his horse from Sylvester to Apple Springs to see her. They liked to go to dances, and from what their friends have told me, they were very good at the Texas 2-Step. No question about whether or not they enjoyed it. They really did.

In 1935, they had a son, Jerry Alton, who never lived more than possibly a moment or two. Apparently his was a very difficult delivery in which the doctor needed to use forceps to assist in birthing him. Forceps can be very hard on a new-born's delicate little body. In the delivery, tragically, his neck was broken, along with mother's heart. Jerry Alton is buried in the Old Sumpter Cemetery, just outside Groveton, TX, where he was born.

Three years later, on May 5, 1938, their next son was born, also in Groveton. That was I.

In 1941, my first sister, Elizabeth Ann joined me. Then in the icy winter of 1944, Charles Henry became a part of our growing family. In 1946 and 1948, both on March 13, Martha Lynn and Melba Jane made our famly complete.

About my brother being an only child? I just borrowed that from Mark Twain to get your attention.