Finding Henry

 

Henry Stevenson

A couple of weeks ago, in the post below this one about my 1965 trip to Los Angeles to attend the national Junior Classical League (aka Latin Clubs) convention, I mentioned how impressed I was with the oratorical performance of a high school student from Baytown, Texas, Henry Stevenson . . . and I wondered what had become of him.

I was unable to find any digital "footprint" for him across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other sources, so I asked readers to share any information they might have about him.  A few days later, my good friend Walter Palmer responded with some photos that seemed to be the Henry Stevenson I had seen in Los Angeles 60 years ago!

Walter had the brilliant idea of searching for high school yearbooks from Baytown, Texas, in the 1965-1966 time frame, and he struck gold.  In the 1966 yearbook for Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Henry Stevenson appeared in a few photos . . . including three photos documenting his presence at the JCL convention and his prize-winning oratorical performance.

Interesting to note that the Baytown team flew to L.A., rather than taking a three-day bus ride like we did from Oklahoma.  And they took top honors in the academic competitions, scoring the most points of any high school across a wide range of tests.  Impressive!

But what became of Henry Stevenson after high school?

After a lot of digging, Walter found an obituary published in the Denison, TX, newspaper in 2009 for a Henry Stevenson of Linn Creek, Missouri (population 220).

Was this the same Henry Stevenson from Baytown, TX?  Possibly.  Denison is about 80 miles north of Dallas, but Linn Creek is in central Missouri, near Lake of the Ozarks recreation area, about 425 miles from Denison and 750 miles from Baytown, Texas.

Other searches didn't turn up anything more, but there was a photograph of the Henry Stevenson with the obituary.  He looked like he could be the older version of the Baytown Henry Stevenson, but how to prove it?

Walter had another brilliant idea.  He enlarged two of the yearbook photos . . . one which showed Henry's right ear and one which showed his left ear.  Then he compared them to the ear folds of the older Henry Stevenson.  Here they are:

I'm persuaded.  What do you think?  (The chin looks pretty similar, too.)

So now we know that Henry Stevenson of Baytown, TX, was probably born in Chickasha, OK, a year and three weeks before I was born in Lawton, OK, about 40 miles from Chickasha.  Small world, eh?

He didn't marry until he was 40 years old, and he married "the love of his life."  They had five children, and he owned and operated a commercial sewing machine business, presumably in Denison, TX.   Given that Linn Creek, MO, has a population of around 200, I'm guessing that it was a retirement destination or a getaway destination for him.  He died just two days shy of his 60th birthday. 

I've been unable to make contact with any of his children, so I don't know any more than what's in the obit.  From his awesome speech at the JCL convention in 1965, I thought for sure he was destined for greatness . . . but, as we all know, life frequently has other plans.

Thanks to Walter Palmer for his great detective work.  And thank you for coming along on this quest.  If you find out anything more about Henry Stevenson, let me know.