By Pat Culverhouse
For more than four decades, Rick Rowe has been the Ark-La-Tex storyteller, traveling major highways and country roads to showcase people and places in cities and villages who make this part of the country special.
During his career at KTBS Channel 3 in Shreveport, Rowe and his camera have offered thousands of vignettes that run the emotional span of laughter, tears and pride. He brought a sampling of his years of recording the interesting and unique to the Minden Lions Club Thursday.
His presentation Thursday ranged from the Shelby County (Texas) sheriff who, while being interviewed by a 90-plus year old radio talk show host, admitted he built his own casket. A pine box-type constructed from lumber he gathered from his grandfather’s 100-year-old house.
Strange? Perhaps. But his wife’s wishes were to be buried in a tree. Why? She’s part Native American, her husband explained to Rowe. But each time she selected a tree, he’d cut it down.
“I went back for a followup on that story, and I couldn’t recognize the place on my GPS. All the trees had been cut down,” Rowe joked.
His human interest pieces included the 90-year-old queen of Shreveport’s Highland Mardi Gras parade, the young Homer police officer who connects to his community by playing parking lot basketball with inner-city youngsters, the Springhill couple who were inside the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Rowe is particularly well known for his patriotic pieces and he brought along two that featured local service men who lost their lives in service to the country: U.S. Navy Seal Rob Reeves of Shreveport and Minden’s Sgt. Joshua Madden. Josh’s letter to his young son prior to his death in combat was featured in Rowe’s piece.
“Each of us in this room are incredibly blessed to have the privilege of having been born in America and all the incredible opportunities it has afforded all of us,” Rowe said. “Unfortunately patriotism, when you look at surveys, is on the decline so that makes places like this and its culture all more important.”
Every person should remember the sacrifices made by those in military service, Rowe emphasized.
“I love it when we can honor those who serve and have served,” Rowe said. “We should just never forget those who did not come home, always be grateful for their service and the great life that we have.”