Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Another friend I knew for many years.


Jimmy Hall recently sent me this picture of Smokey's grave site in Commerce, Texas.
I thought that "Sent for the Laundry" would be a nice inscription but not many people would know what it meant.
I have a coin that Smokey gave me with the elephant design shown above, stamped on it.

Posted by Buckles at 2/07/2006 06:55:00 AM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

With so many aproaches to establishing an everlasting memory
the grave stone is a bold statement often appropriately representing the deceased one. This grave stone has a few interesting focal points But I've never seen a persons " Signature " before & incorperated so well as this is. That's a very appropriate insignia for ones memory !

07 February, 2006 08:19
Anonymous said...

The New York Times reports today that the Bronx Zoo plans to phase out its elephant exhibit when one or two of its three remaining elephants dies. I know many of your readers don't care for seeing elephants in zoos. But, as the article points out, here in America's largest city, the Bronx Zoo is the only zoo where children can see live elephants. You can access the lengthy article (with pictures) on the Times' website today (www.nytimes.com). It is listed under "New York/Region"
The story is sad, but true. --- ToddP

07 February, 2006 09:24
Anonymous said...

I never met Smokey Jones, but I made a "Smokey Jones Hook" once.

Hey Bud, don't pick out a stone yet, we still have a few shows left in us!
L.J.

07 February, 2006 09:27
Anonymous said...

i hope the elephants will go back to another zoo and not in a santuary because no one will see them if they do

07 February, 2006 10:10
Anonymous said...

Kind of bittersweet and sad to read the Times piece on the Bronx Zoo. It would be nice to think that the end is still twenty years off, and things can change in twenty years. Even when I worked there oh so many years ago there were those who suggested the best way for the WCS to manage the elephants might be to keep them on St Catherine's Island, rotating a few through the exhibit in the park periodically. Since the AZA SSP essentially attempts to manage elephants as a single breeding herd, if your program isn't breeding and your animals are getting older, you're a backwater. This is a bit different than San Francisco, or Santa Barbara, or Detroit where activists or an activist director pulled the trigger. Of course parks might be more inclined to attempt to replace animals under CITES exemptions if groups like PeTA weren't so shrill. Their stated aversion to reproduction in elephants in domesticity in North America makes it tough to use legitimate CITES exemptions to create a viable genetically diverse managed herd. Not that CITES COP regulations help much themselves as they endlessly debate definitions of commercial versus non-commercial.

ben trumble

07 February, 2006 10:15
Anonymous said...

Eric asks:

Hi Buckles,

Do you know off hand if Smokey was buried with a bull hook? Thanks.

Eric

07 February, 2006 10:42
Buckles said...

I don't know, I didn't attend the funeral but I could find out.
I did my damndest to get him buried in Hugo, David Rawls had provided a grave site but Smokey had a sister in Commerce that overruled us.

07 February, 2006 11:54
Buckles said...

Many years ago Smokey gave me a tie clasp with a bull hook on it and I recently placed it on Walter Logan's shirt at his funeral.

07 February, 2006 11:58
Anonymous said...

Jimmy and I were at Smokey's funeral along with only a small handful of other show people. Since it was summer, most show people were out working. A few came from Hugo,Carol Rawls and BK silverlake and Tim Frisco and son Anthony. From Dallas there was Larry Allen Dean and Terry Finny.Rex and Marry were also there. It was quite small and a preacher gave the eulogy. Smokey's surviving siblings were there and acording to them, it was his wishes that he be buried next to his favorite sister who has a plot there at the cemetary in Commerce, TX. She was not yet deceased.Right before the casket was closed, Tim Frisco put a gold elephant pendant inside but to my knowledge, no bull hook . The family seemed very pleased that there were some friends there to recount Smokey stories for them. Jimmy, Larry ,Tim and Terry also got the honor of being his pall bearers.
Tepa

11 February, 2006 23:22

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