2024.09.05 THROW BACK THURSDAY - WARNER ST. JOHN PLUS CLASS NEWS
THROW BACK THURSDAY - WARNER ST. JOHN PLUS CLASS NEWS
I had started an article about Warner St. John after his death, but somehow never finished it. He was an amazing, amazing person. Sit back and enjoy reading not only his obituary, but the personal notes from Bill Harmon and Frank Plegge, who were his good friends. And he had many!
Andrew Warner St. John, the only deaf athlete ever to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks, died on April 2, 2022, in his Florida home surrounded by his family. Warner was born in Rogers, Arkansas on January 23, 1936, to Jewel Thompson St. John and Warner St. John. At an early age, Warner was sent to Central Institute of the Deaf in St. Louis, Missouri to receive the best education possible. Reluctant to leave his family, he often unpacked his suitcase as his mother packed. At Central Institute Warner learned lip reading and developed a speaking language, but never learned sign language.
He attended Pulaski Junior High and Little Rock Central High School. At Central High, football coach Wilson Matthews praised Warner saying "His hearing handicap seems to have endowed him with better eyesight and reflexes than the average player. He can't be fooled. If a blade of grass moves, he is aware of it." Matthews claimed that he put Warner opposite the opposing center and built the rest of the defense around him. While playing for the Central Tigers, Warner was selected as All State and All Southern defensive guard. His dream of being a Razorback came true when he was awarded a scholarship to play football.
Coach Jack Mitchell praised Warner as not only a fine football player, but also a man of highest morals and character. Warner played defense for the U of A for three years. He earned a B.A. degree from Memphis State University, the only deaf member of the graduating class of 1966. He also attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the nation's top school for the deaf.
Warner was a physical education teacher and coach of football, basketball and track for 36 years at Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, Florida. He served as president of the Florida Association for the Deaf and was one of the pioneers in passing the American Sign Language law in the state. He was one of the founders of the Tri-County Association of the Deaf (TCAD) in The Villages, Florida. Warner will be remembered as a sweet and kind person who loved sports and was the #1 Razorback and Boston Red Sox fan.
He is survived by his wife, Diane of The Villages, Florida, and his two children, Andy St. John and Peggy Ann St. John Wenger of Austin, Texas. He was the proud grandfather of Racheal Ann St. John Harper, Emma Jewel Wenger and Thomas Leibig Wenger. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Peggy St. John White of Osceola, AR.
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Warner chose not to go to the Arkansas School for the Deaf because he wanted to play football and be around hearing students his age.
He overcame obstacles in class and on the football field that the rest of us could never comprehend. And I NEVER heard him complain.
He seemed to be everyone’s friend and always dated VERY pretty girls.
I don’t ever remember Warner using sign language. If I had I would have tried to learn to sign. He always read lips.
You could always find Warner on the bus coming back from an out of town football game because he would have the overhead light on his seat so he could read your lips and you could see his.
Also when he would pass Webbers Root Beer Stand he would never honk his horn to get your attention, he would flash his lights and wave.
If you were around him enough you could understand his monotone speaking but I learned to read lips better around him. It served me well in the Army to be able to read lips across the room in briefings. I never advertised that capability to anyone while in the Army; keeping it secret served me well.
Warner was a ferocious football player and was All State and All Southern as I remember on defense as the Nose Guard. I do not every remember him being injured or missing a game.
He was very tough and had the reflexes of a cat I guess because he was deaf. On the field noise or trash talk never distracted him for obvious reasons and his monotone grunting sounds scared opposing Centers.
Frank Plegge was Warner’s roommate for two years at the University of Arkansas so Frank would be a great source of stories about Warner.
BILL HARMON
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To begin with I don't think anyone could do a better job of detailing facts about Warner than what Bill Harmon has offered. I can add a few of my own.
Living with Warner for those two years at Fayetteville was a life lesson for me. We lived in the athletic dorm and to begin the day most of us had an alarm clock. Warner had a bright light instead of the usual sounds. When he wanted to ignore the alarm he would put a big pillow over his head so he couldn't see it. I had to take a pillow and sometimes a shoe to wake him up. We had a lot of fun with that.
Warner went about his college day really Like any other student. We could converse with each other quite well as he taught me to read lips. At college events he dated as much as most students. We would make his phone calls for him to get dates. He really fit in quite well. It was great to talk to him following his dates. Lots of questions for me to explain the dating game. He did quite well. We could even talk to each other sitting across a crowded room.
Warner was a few years older than most of his friends. He had attended a deaf school in Saint Louis to learn to lip read and how to pronounce words. He didn't know sign language that I know of and refused to use it. I along with Bill Harmon remember him from the first time we encountered each other in a Junior High football game -- West Side vs. Pulaski Heights. He was older and a little further physically developed than most of us and was quite good at his position. He really excelled on defense. When we got to Little Rock Central High he was a quick learner and learned to play both offense and defense. He was really good on defense playing in the defensive line. When we got to college he was a bit handicapped. Back in the 50s at the college level players had to play both offence and defense and you could only come out of the game once a quarter. So going both ways and the use of an audible call by the quarterback or on defense left him out of the changes being made.
I lost touch with Warner after our Sophomore year. Luckily I ran into Warner at a High School Reunion in 70s or 80s. He was living in Florida and teaching and coaching at a deaf school. He was doing quite well and looked good. I also met his wife at the reunion and she was an absolute delight. It really made me feel good. I could go on about Warner, but others will have their say. He taught me a lot and I am a better person by knowing him. He was unique.
Frank Plegge
Warner’s son and daughter. Isn’t it amazing how much the son favors Warner?
1956 CLASS NEWS
Carol Ann Dick Eichelmann
Carol Ann (Dick) Eichelmann, age 86, of Little Rock, passed away on August 13, 2024. She was born February 25, 1938, in Topeka, Kansas to Barbara Dick Robertson and Richard Donald Dick. Carol Ann is preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, Oliver, her sister, Nancy Dick Johnson, and parents Barbara and Richard Dick. She is survived by children Ardee, Barbara, Nick; grandsons Hunter and Houston and great-grandson Finley. Carol Ann was a member of Our Lady of Holy Souls Church and a 1956 graduate of Little Rock Central High School. She married her high school sweetheart, Oliver. Carol Ann and Oliver enjoyed square dancing and spent many hours scouring estate sales to stock the shelves at their flea market in Beebe. Carol Ann never met a stranger and was known to carry on a telephone conversations when she answered a wrong number. She loved her dogs, almost of whom were rescued – they took in many that needed love and a home. In order to help other animals in need, memorials may be made Little Rock Animal Village. https://www.friendsoftheanimalvillage.org/in-honor-in-memory-of-donation
Annette Cole Watson (Mrs. Terry) fell, suffered a brain bleed and has just been transferred out of the ICU
to a hospital room. She and Terry are still living at Woodland Heights if you would like to send a card.
Bucky Polk is passing along some helpful hints for all of us trying to open medicine bottles these days:
1. Tell pharmacist you do NOT want childproof caps on your medications.
2. If you get one anyway, turn bottle upside down and screw on (I wasn't able to get this to work)
3. Take childproof cap off, push center in and the cap becomes a regular screw on top.
Thanks, Bucky!
Carol Lee Tucker Foreman has moved to senior housing in Washington, D.C. Her new information is: Chevy Chase House, Apartment 405, 5420 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, DC 20015 Phone: (202) 441-4510 . There's a possibility she will be coming to Little Rock in October to visit her brother, Jim Guy Tucker. If you would be interested and available to get together with Carol Lee for lunch while she is here, just let me know and we will start making plans.
SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS
2 Barbara Edwards
3 Farris Spann
7 John Choate
8 Nancy Long
14 Jackie Bush and Betty Prichard
17 Jan Nix and Doug F. Smith
19 Linda Bennett
20 Barbara Welton and Martha Jane Williams
22 Mary Lou Medlock
23 Michael Johns
24 Bill Gregory and Anna Vratsinas
26 Julie Anne Hamilton
29 Lynda Dixon and Herbie Wright
30 Smith, Charles
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1960 CLASS NEWS
If you know someone in that Class and they haven't heard about their 65th Class Reunion, please tell them it starts Friday, September 20 and continues on Saturday, September 21, at the Marriott hotel on Shackelford Road just off West Markham (201 South Shackelford Road). They should contact Ann Smith Ivey or Carolyn Carpenter Dodds or just email me.
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A LITLE HISTORY 0UR CLASS BARELY MISSED: Yesterday in 1957, nine Black students attempted to enter Central High School in Little Rock. Several of them made their way to one corner of the campus where the National Guard turned them away. One of them, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, arrived at the north end of the campus and was directed away by National Guardsmen. Surrounded by a growing crowd of protesters who jeered and taunted her, Eckford made her way to a bus stop on the south side of the campus and was able to board a bus. The next morning, people around the country and world opened their newspapers to images of the teenager besieged by an angry mob of students and adults. Will Counts’s iconic photograph of Eckford is shown here.
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ML